Impressive times and efforts as Woodbridge Invitational returns to Irvine.
Sweepstakes
Sadie Englehardt of Ventura set a course record in her season debut two weeks ago at UCSB and on Friday night Sadie ran the fastest high school time on a 3-mile cross country course. Payton Godsey of Oaks Christian, Samantha Humphries of Flower Mound and Sadie Englehardt came through the mile mark together at 5:10 and then Sadie stepped on the gas. Sadie ran the middle mile in 5:13 and left the field. Sadie finished with an all-time 3-mile record of 15:42.6 and Payton broke 16 with at a time of 15:51.9. Now what was going to happen in the team race? Race favorite Buchanan came through with tenth place finish by Sydney Sundgren, 11th by Elle Lomeli and 13th place finish by Kynzlee Buckley to win the Sweepstakes race. Impressive performance considering the team has been fighting some illness and injuries. Buchanan won with 91 points and Southlake Carroll of Texas took second with 107 points.
A pack of ten boys came through the mile mark of the Sweepstakes race in 4:36 and Tyrone Gorze of Crater (OR) dropped at 4:28 second mile and won by seven seconds with a time of 13:42.8 and Tayson Echohawk of Orem (UT) finished second in 13:49.3. Tyrone became the first out of state Sweepstakes winner. Coach Doug Soles, whose Great Oak teams won the Woodbridge Sweepstakes on a regular basis, returned to Woodbridge with his Herriman team from Utah as they put three runners in the top 30 with a team score of 117. Tyrone Gorze's team of Crater took second with 139 points. The Comets of Crater got a boost from sophomore Josiah Tostenson's fifth place finish.
For pictures from both Sweepstakes race click HERE
Rated
Five girls came through the Rated race in 5:27 at the mile mark and there were still four girls left at the 2-mile mark at 11:03. Orem's Lydia Beus came away with the win at 16:29.8 and Chiara Dailey of La Jolla finished second in 16:34.8. Ava Trimble of Orem ran with her teammate Lydia for 2-miles of the race and finished fourth to help Orem win the Rated team race with 143 points. La Canada placed second with 152 points and had three runners in the top 20.
Senior Carson Noecker of Harlington-Newcastle (NB) had not lost a cross country race since his freshman year, but he has also never run out of state either. Can he keep his streak going with a tough field in California? Carson ran like he does in Nebraska - in front and aggressive. He ran a 4:23 first mile (which was faster than the later raced Sweepstakes first mile). He then continued to push the pace at the 2-mile mark at 8:58 (also faster than the 2-mile at the Sweepstakes race). The pace caught up to him a little in the last mile, but he still ran an incredible time of 13:49.7. He finished almost 30 seconds in front of second place finisher Chris Henry of Park City (UT) who ran 14:29.1.
For pictures to both Rated races, click HERE.
For pictures to the varsity Blue and Gold races, click HERE.
Also, we gave DyeStat extra photos from Friday night's varsity races. Check out their site for additional photos.