Over the weekend of October 19-20th, Redwood’s Girls and Boys Cross Country traveled just south of Los Angeles to Walnut, California for a two-day trip and a race at the Mt. Sac Annual Invite. Although the races themselves were hell, overall, it served as a good getaway from the valley and an opportunity to make fun memories on the team.
Redwood took 5 teams overall to compete in the meet under D2: Girls and Boys Varsity, Girls Sophomores, Girls Freshmen, and Boys Sophomores. Big performances included Chloe Schultz got 10th place in the Varsity Girls race with a 20:09, Amanda Dominguez got 8th with 23:02 in the Sophomore race, Ciera Sesock got 23:22 and 11th place in the Freshman race.
Nick Reid 4th overall with 17:40 and Peter Nunez 13th overall with 18:29 led to the overall 3rd place team finish for the Sophomore Boys. Bailey Darnell winning the whole Boys Varsity race, finishing with a 15:32 and receiving a bell along with a medal. Darnell said this race really gave him faith in himself moving forward and described the course overall: “As a whole, it is the hardest course I have ever ran in high school because 80% of it is hills.” Being his last year and last Mt. Sac trip, he said he couldn’t have had a better experience.
The team drove up Friday morning in 4 vans, headed to the area around the college / course, ate lunch, then unpacked at the hotel. The boys team practiced early morning, so they got a few hours to hang out and relax but the girls had a shake-out run when they got there. They headed out around the hotel and came back to get ready.
Later that evening, the girls and boys teams headed out to the Brea Mall for a bit to hang out and shop then headed over to Buca de Beppo’s for a pasta dinner. It’s an annual tradition to load up the night before the big meet by going to this cozy Italian restaurant every year.
The team headed back to the hotel after that until lights out. The next morning, groups would head down to the complimentary breakfast then even some headed to a coffee shop to work on homework before the races.
Around 12-12:30, everyone headed over to the meet together and set up for the long afternoon. Race by race went by and after packing up, they headed back to Visalia and stopped for dinner and even fro-yo on the way back.
Amanda Dominguez, ’21, described the race and her overall experience (being her first time): “It was definitely the toughest course I’ve ever been on…being so used to the valley and grass courses…but it was still very exciting.” She explained that she loved this opportunity to grow closer with her teammates and build even more in-depth relationships with friends on the team. “Not only did we share tons of laughs, but we also shared the mutual goal of pushing each other to be better.”
This trip is unique because unlike other meets, it’s supposed to be based more on the experience and fun not the fast, competitive times. So overall, for first timers, returners, or last years, it was a fun trip of bonding and growth as well as difficulties and mental strength.
Tags: boys, central valley, cross country, girls, hills, mt sac, race, redwood high school, redwood rangers