Irvine, CA — Check out TeamPages for specific information regarding this season at: https://www.teampages.com/teams/1063519-Los-Osos-Cross-Country-cross-country-running-team-website/announcements Coach O's recap: When the announcement came that there would be a venue change for the Woodbridge Invitational, my reaction was, “not surprised.” I have attended this meet for 38 years and while it actually began at Woodbridge High School in Irvine, the location has changed frequently. Why? Mostly because the big meet has grown into a living, breathing monstrosity that, like events of this size, has requirements that are difficult to accommodate, especially when you need two consecutive days to hold it. From Woodbridge HS to Estancia HS to Great Park to Silverlakes and back to Great Park this year. Each with their pros and cons, but despite the hassle of purchasing parking in advance, one couldn’t help but be thrilled with not waiting to get into Silverlakes. Perfect south OC weather and a lightning-fast course made for some fast times and the Friday schedule allowed all the athletes to travel together and facilitate more bonding after the Morro Bay weekend. I have kept course records despite the course changing constantly even when it’s at the same venue, so know that the accuracy is questionable, but then it always has been. It’s consistently flat and consistently 3 miles, so I count them. This is now the largest meet in the country and for those newcomers to the sport, the circus you witnessed yesterday was duplicated on Thursday with just as many athletes participating. There were many highlights as everyone who ran here last year improved their time, some by large margins. One of the smaller improvements belonged to Noah Chairez, but when you are that fast, it’s much harder to drop significant time, but he looked great! The 27-second improvement moved him from #9 all-time to #3 all-time, so he definitely brought the goods as he finished 9th in the varsity race! Matthew Ruiz ran with a purpose last night and looked fantastic, racing to a time of 16:19 to finish 9th in the junior race. Dominic Skiles and Maverick Chamberlin continued to improve and gain confidence in the process, both breaking 17:00. Was anyone more fun to watch than John Luck? He made is debut with a 10th place finish in the novice race, picking it up with every cheer. The girls rode a 33-second scoring gap to an 11th-place finish out of 25 schools. Haley Jenson, Hannah Hassan, and a hard-charging Evelyn Simon paced the Lady Grizzlies. This meet was better prep for what we face in the Baseline League, which outside of the Rancho boys, were all in attendance over the two days. Rancho’s girls will undoubtedly take over the #1 spot in the D1 CIF Rankings this week and the league is loaded again, which means we have to race with purpose and be prepared to compete on Tuesday at Red Hill Park. We will race without the sweltering heat on Tuesday and that is excellent news. Let’s battle on Tuesday everyone! Great job last night! Complete Results (includes improvement from last year): Boys Varsity (168 runners): 9. Noah Chairez – 15:13 (#3 mark all-time; -:27) Girls Varsity (11th of 25 teams; 167 runners): 50. Haley Jenson – 19:43 (-:58); 57. Hannah Hassan – 19:50; 59. Evelyn Simon – 19:52 (-2:39); 65. Jenna Summers – 20:02; 79. Brigitte Sanchez – 20:16 Boys Seniors (170 runners): 18. Fernando Hernandez – 16:30; 51. JJ Johnson – 17:20 (-1:23) Boys Juniors (242 runners): 9. Matthew Ruiz – 16:19; 60. Jacob Winter – 17:37 (-2:10); 92. Jonathan Eakle – 18:00 (-2:23) Girls JV (213 runners): 47. Sydney Oravets – 21:26 Boys Sophs (23rd of 37 teams; 353 runners): 41. Dominic Skiles – 16:54 (-1:26); 47. Maverick Chamberlin – 16:57 (-1:24); 192. Ben Gasparian – 18:52 (-:14); 216. Kyle Thomas – 19:14 (-3:07); 217. Brayden Cox – 19:14 Girls Sophs (129 runners): 109. Briana Arias – 25:44 Boys Frosh (350 runners): 78. Adrian Marquez – 18:11; 116. Troy Trask – 18:50; 281. Nathan Lee – 21:09 Girls Frosh (151 runners): 57. Emmery Mitchell – 22:17 Boys Novice (253 runners): 10. John Luck – 20:20; 67. Nathan Torres – 22:35