The Pacific Association XC Championship came full circle last weekend as runners gathered at the Folsom High School Cross Country Course in Folsom, CA. Folsom High School being the original site of the Pacific Association Golden West Invitational was host to an outstandng group of athletes. Pleasanton Heat walked away with top honors and three Division Team Titles scoring 313 points, followed by Roseville Express(189) and Buffalo Chips(131).
Julia Bounds and Caitlin Palacio led the early going for the Bantam girls 3K Run. The duo paced by Bounds held a 50 metre edge on the pack. Bounds from Palo Alto Lightning pushed ahead early to build a commanding lead while Palacio of LSI Runners Factory ran a tough 20 seconds behind the leader. The remainder of the pack, led by Pricilla Lee of Umoja followed competitively behind while bounds lead grew to more than 100 meters as the competitors passed the half-way point.
With one final loop remaining, Bounds led Palacio(12:46.32) and Lee(13:00.34) to close out the win in 12:07. With Talley Hill(13:09.61) of San Luis Distance Club and Nina Bessolo(13:28.75) of Castro Valley in the 4-5 positiions. Camryn Cook(Pacific United) was 6th with 13:36.75 with Michelle Green of Pleasanton Heat right behind in 13:39.80.
On the Bantam Boys Side it was Breandan Myrick for Full Stride Track Club taking top honors in 11:59.56. Benjamin Zaeske of Palo Alto Lightning was second (12:08.61) while Jason Gomez Unattached (12:13.76), Timothy Falls of Pleasanton Heat (12:27.54), and Logan Taggart of Roseville Express (12:37.56) rounded out the top five.
In the Midget Girls 3k Christine Bayliss (11:32.51) and Reaghan Emrick (12:00.99) of Roseville Express went 1-2 to capture two of Roseville's five finishes in the Top Ten. Emrick and Sophie Hartley of Pleasanton Heat finished a little over a second apart for Hartley to take thrid in 12:01.25. Roseville also occupied 5th, 8th and 10th place finsihes. Rounding out the top 10 was 4th Jocelyn Vidas (Pacific United), 6th Candy Janachowski (Marin Wavers), 7th Eleaner Velez (Buffalo Chips) and 9th Michayla Mabourakh (Buffalo Chips).
clear ahead of the field in the Midget Boys 3K run was Buffalo Chips Tristyn Martin (11:09.19) to continued his string of early season performances. However; Unable to out run Samuel Blake (unattached) in their last 2 meetings, Martin pulled away with the Championship win over Blake who cross the line in second with a time of 11:16.74. The Silver Bullets Giorgio Liantono took third in 11:19.42. Behind Liantono was Steven Sum, who took fourth with a time of 11:38.12. Within four seconds of Sum crossing the finish line, Pleasanton Heat Kahalle Kuiokal Warring placed Fifth overall.
In the women’s Youth Girls 4K contest, Madeline Ankhelyi (Buffalo Chips) clocked a 15:29.81 for second place, finishing fifty six seconds behind race champion Julia Maxwelll (Unattached), who led the entire race with 14:26.26 to finish. Nicholette Sorensen (Pleasanton Heat) followed up Ankhelyi's effort with a third-place finish, stopping the clock in 15:59.61. Finishing out the Youth Girls top five finishers were Michelle Pouquette (16:12.24) and Karina Torres (16:19.01). The Youth Girls 6th, 7th and 8th place finishers finished close together with only one-hundredths of a second apart.
In the Youth boys 4k Run, Pleasanton Heat took charge finishing 5 of the races top 10 times. However it would be Roseville's own Brynn Sargent to the finish first in a time of 13:32.46. Continuing his 4 race winning streak Brynn ran comfortably to the finish 42 seconds ahead of second place finisher Nolan Petersen of Pleasanton Heat. Who was followed by teammates Sean Aylward and Ryan Kinney to Rounding out the Trio. Other finishers were Andrew Osgood (Central Valley), Nolan Tonkyn (Unattached), Kevin Poteracke (Santa Rosa Express), Aidan Goltra (Pleasanton Heat), Connor McCarthy (Pleasanton heat) and finishinf the Top Ten was David Zarrin (Unattached).
Wriiten By Alexander Hill
