By: Krissy Hetherington
After months of workouts on the track, in the weight room, on hills, and in the neighborhoods, cross country’s season is quickly coming to an end.
The girls JV and Varsity teams dominated in the first Cluster Meet a few weeks ago against all WYL schools. On the boys side, Varsity’s results were mixed at their cluster meets.
At their first cluster meet, the girls swept across JV and Varsity. JV’s depth of team showed as they placed 1-15 and the Varsity won over Golden West 33-57.
In the second Cluster meet at Mooney Grove Park, JV took another perfect score while the Varsity team extended their lead over Golden West 26-56.
On October 12th, Redwood competed in the Clovis Invitational. Mia Maciel led the Rangers with a Personal Best on the Woodward Park course for Varsity. Zoe Matlock and Bethany Garcia ran really well and also set new PRs, coach Tony Ramirez said.
The team’s superpower is a group of young girls. Varsity’s 7 is made up of one sophomore and three freshmen. Ramirez also explains that out of 27 girls in the program, 19 of them are 15 years old or younger.
“I think a lot of coaches would view a season with a young squad as a rebuilding year. I don’t see it like that,” Ramirez said. “I think we’ve done an exceptional job of continuing to build on our championship program and culture…this team is as committed and mature as any team I’ve ever coached-they come here to work hard and they fully accept the role that’s expected of them.”
Following this Invite, Redwood traveled to the Clovis North Twilight Classic to improve their two-mile times. Mia Maciel and Chloe Schultz led the way and a super strong supporting cast of Victoria Nino, Zoe Matlock, Sophia Dominguez, Jaden Hydash and Bethany Garcia anchored the team to a 6th place finish in the Large School Division.
“I’m just really pleased with the progress that the team is showing. The team culture is truly stronger than ever, as a whole, and we have a strong core group of girls that have just really committed themselves to the program.”
Tony Ramirez, Girls Cross Country Coach
On the boys side, they have one of two cluster meets as well. In the first, Redwood’s varsity came short by 9 points to El Diamante, 40-49. In the following inner-league meet, Redwood scored a 38 to El Diamante’s 54 to come out on top this time.
“We had a 25-point turn around which I was very happy about…when we put a complete team race together, we will dominate. Ryan Hemphill has been the most consistent runner and freshman, Pedro Mendez continues to improve each race,” said Boys Head Coach, Joe Gonzalez.
This previous weekend, boys cross country traveled to Mt. San Antonio College for the 72nd annual Mt. Sac XC Invitational. The Varsity team placed third overall and Ryan Hemphill, ’20, took an individual medal home for a 9th place finish.
The sophomores took fourth place overall and Pedro Mendez and Eddie Cortez took home individual medals for 6th place and 15th place.
“The team has been working very hard and their constant improvement is a great result and I’m looking for some great times at the WYL Championships.”
Joe Gonzalez, Boys Cross Country Head Coach
Their next race will be this weekend at the John Seamons Invitational at the Kingsburg Gun Club early in the morning.