Achievements, goals met for Carson cross country team at Stockton invitational
The Carson High School cross country team returned home with several personal record times and personal goals achieved Saturday during the 10th annual Pacific Tiger Cross Country Invitational in Stockton, Calif.
Claire Cartier earned an individual medal as she ran to 15th-place with a time of 13:54 over the 2-mile layout at Elkhorn Golf Course. Sydney Romero placed 29th (14:16), Samantha Schofield 32nd (14:21), Ginger Cullom 109th (16:23) and Jardeh Lopez 134th (17:07) to complete the team scoring. Ava Ponzoch also ran 20:04. Each of the Senators' freshman and sophomore runners logged personal record times.
“It was a really good meet,” coach Pete Sinnott said. “The weather was nice, it was a little warm, but the kids ran well and a lot of them reached the goals we set.”
Carson took ninth-place out of 15 teams in the large schools girls junior varsity race to provide a highlight during a meet that attracted entries from California's central valley area and Bay area, as well as Washington and Nevada. The team title was taken home by traditional Bay Area power San Ramon Valley with a near perfect score of 17 points.
In the large schools varsity boys race, Zach Sever took sixth-place in a field of 316 finishers, as the senior clocked a personal record time of 16:17.3 for 5 kilometers. Sever finished 30 seconds off the winning pace set by Patrick McGonigle of Sheldon (Sacramento) and marked the fastest 5K time by a Nevada prep runner so far this season, according to Sinnott.
“Sixth in that race was pretty good,” Sinnott said of the senior. “He's getting stronger every week.”
Carson finished 28th in a field of 38 teams. Reed captured the team title with 117 points.
Walker MacKenzie finished 138th (18:04), Ethan Baulerle 208th (18:50, personal best), Jakob Heller 216th (18:56) and Asher Koch 223rd (19:03, personal record) to round out the team scoring. Gabe Crossman also ran 19:39 and Dominic Valdez ran a personal best 19:48.
“The goal this week was for the boys to get 30 seconds closer to Zach, and I think they pretty much did that,” Sinnott said.
In the large schools JV boys race, Kyle Holloway ran 12:23 for two miles to finish 74th in a race that had 300 finishers. William Ore also ran 13:11, Cody Jackson 13:26, Travis Navarro 13:32, Luke Syndergard 13:38, Eduardo Hernandez 14:51, Josh Dodderidge 14:53 and Nathaniel Crossman 30:09. Carson finished 20th out of 27 teams and each of the eight Senators set personal best times.
The invitational was hosted by the University of Pacific and St. Mary's High School in Stockton. The Senators are scheduled to run again this coming Saturday at the Truckee Invitational.