Coast Union senior, Salem Babcock ran in the Small Schools Boys Race at the Morro Bay Invitational, clocking 20:45.5.
Morro Bay High’s two sophomore phenoms led the Lady Pirates to a third place finish at the Annual Morro Bay Invitational Cross Country Meet.
Sophomore Shelby Taylor finished second in the Small Schools Varsity Girls’ Race behind San Luis Obispo High’s Phoebe Drazsnzak, a senior who crossed the line in 18-minutes 10.3-seconds. Taylor was hot on her heels clocking 18:19.1 over the 2.61-mile course.
Morro Bay’s other strong sophomore, Wendy Wilson, finished fifth in 18:58.7, and junior Phaedra FernFlores was 13th in 19:33.1.
The Lady Pirates’ other scoring runners were: Astrid Barnett-Davis (34th, 21:42.7); and senior, Rheanna Dunton (92nd, 24:47.4), giving the Lady Pirates a strong start to a season following an appearance in the State Meet last year.
SLOHS won the team trophy with 50 points; Highland was second with 74; and Morro Bay took third with 127, in a race that had 123 runners.
In the Small Schools Boys Race, SLOHS senior Conor Mason won by nearly 100 yards, timing 15:06.9, ahead of second place finisher, teammate and fellow senior, Jacob Schuetze (15:23.9). Sophomore Isaac Saravia from Porterville was third in 15:27.6.
Morro Bay’s top runner was senior, Eli Waldman who finished 14th and took home the last of the meet hardware (Top 14 runners got medals).
MBHS sophomore, Abe Gabe was 16th in 16:16.4, with sophomore Lucas McAlpine 20th in 16:31.5.
The Pirates’ other two runners were: sophomore Cameron C’Aunoy (47th, 17:18); and junior, Dominic Holst (53rd, 17:30.8).
SLOHS took the team trophy scoring 37 points; with Porterville second with 79; and McFarland third with 97.
In other races, MBHS’ Gabriel Pascual, a junior, took 22nd place in 18:25.3 to lead Morro Bay’s contingent in the JV race.
The meet saw a rarity for cross country meets — a perfect score. In the Small Schools Girls JV race, SLO High took the Top-5 spots and scored a perfect 15 points to win the team trophy.
Junior Carly Meeks led the way (first, 19:22.9); followed by Kasey Abercromby (So. 19:23); Charlotte Petit (So. 19:51.4); Leah Siciliano (So. 20:21.2); and Molly Berkeland (Jr. 20:35.6) all writing their names into the meet’s storied history.
Second in the team scoring was McFarland with 64 and third was Highland with 65.
The meet is a traditional kick-off to the season and this year drew over 1,400 runners from dozens of school that came from as far as Southern California and the Central Valley, including perennial powerhouse McFarland, which annually competes for the State Championship and was also the subject of a 2015 Kevin Costner movie, McFarland USA.
But Morro Bay’s meet includes runners in middle school and one Los Osos MS runner did quite well in the boy’s race.
Eighth grader Seamus Wolf finished eighth in 9:45.7. Teammates Chase Taylor (13th, 10:05.6) and Noah Erwin (14th, 10:07.1) both eighth graders, also ran well. The middle school boy’s race had 127 runners.
LOMS also had some strong finishers amongst the girls race, as seventh grader, McKenzie Wynns, finished 10th in 11:09.3. Eighth grader, Sophia Waldman, was 14th in 11:40.5 and Corinne Matson, a seventh grader, was 16th in 11:50.4.
To see all the race results, go online to: Racefoxresults.com and download the pdf file.
