Santa Clarita, CA — After a two-year hiatus, the Foothill League Cross Country Finals returned to Central Park in Saugus. Filled with top local talent and several ranked teams in the varsity races, the Valencia Vikings Cross Country Team needed to bring their best looking for both team and individual glory and a chance to extend their season to the CIF Southern Section Prelims in November. With the park construction project recently completed, the Central Park course was a slightly modified return to a mainstay racing venue for the Santa Clarita Valley teams. The racecourse started on the soccer fields and quickly transitioned to the dirt paths with both flat sections and rolling hills mixed in. With a steep ascent up “Rattle Snake Hill” in the second mile, the racers had ample opportunities to put the hurt on their competitors and push themselves to the limit in what would be the final race of the season for most athletes. Sporting their purple and gold ribbons in their hair, the Frosh/Soph Lady Vikings lined up with anticipation and excitement to show their Foothill League competitors that they have been working hard and were a force to be reckoned with. The Vikings had fifteen girls in the race, more girls competing than any other school. As the gun went off, Macy Redin and Bailey Haydamack got out quickly with the front pack. Macy held her ground and came away with a 2nd Team All-League title and ninth place overall. To top off an already stellar performance of 23:15, she improved her 3 mile all-time best by 9 seconds on a course that is not known for speedy times. Just a few seconds behind Macy was Bailey, who lost some ground mid race but came on strong in the last 800 meters to also claim a second team All-League placing with eleventh place. This performance (23:21) is a 27 sec PR for Bailey! The third Viking Lady was Hayley Sykes, who for the past month has been sidelined for workouts battling shin splints. Hayley ran her own race, steadily moving up as she felt strong enough, and narrowly missed an All-League placing by three spots, coming in 17th. This was by far Hayley’s best race this season (24:35) improving her previous best by over a minute! Coming in just a few spots behind Hayley was Gianna Bazar, who also ran the race of her life, running 1 minute and 30 seconds faster than she ever has! She was the 4th Viking of the day at 24:58. Gianna, just like at Mt Sac, dusted her competitors on the hills and passed four girls in the last 150 meters with a screaming kick to the finish. Only one second behind Gianna and fifth Lady Viking to score for Frosh/Soph was Sophie Langer. Sophia has been struggling on and off with injuries this season and ran close to her personal best at 24:59 to snag 24th place. Sophia also had a great kick into the finish line. Ariana Reyes Mccarthy ran a phenomenal race as the sixth Viking, running 90 seconds faster than she ever has before (25:32)! Seventh and Eighth place, Emily Downs and Irene Kim came in 33rd and 34th respectively, working together to push each other to personal best! That performance was a 2 min PR for Irene! Honorable mention goes to athletes who also ran a personal best on the day: Krithi Ganti ran a 90 second improvement and Nidhi Illendula was over a minute better than her pervious PR. Watching all these ladies push themselves to run faster than they had ever run before was amazing. The icing on the cake was their third place team placing, narrowly missing 2nd place. Exciting things are in store for the future of the Vikings Girls Cross Country program as all but one of these ladies are only freshmen! With an early and cool start, the large contingent of Frosh/Soph Viking boys were looking to mix it up with the other Foothill League youngsters. After inspiring pre-race words and a boisterous cheer led by Lincoln Gabbard, the Vikings launched off the line for their final time this season. After a tough season sitting out every other race due to injury, Soph Rhett Klinger was first across the line for the Vikings in eighth place at 17:43. Lincoln Gabbard finished shortly behind in eleventh at 18:00 with Adrian So moving up nicely through the last mile to finish seventeenth in 18:35. The Vikings flooded the line soon after with Josiah Lee (18:57) and Hudson Lee (19:01) the last two Vikes to score followed by Luke Rezkallah (19:05), Phoenix Bailey (19:21), Jake Robideau (19:24) Luis Torres Orrala (19:26) all within 21 seconds. The second Frosh Viking pack was led by Owen St. Clair (19:39), Brixus Andrew Lopez (19:46) and Bennett Pauer at 19:52 with a new PR. Many personal bests followed for the Vikes with Crue Redfern finishing at 20:46, a 34 second improvement, Soph Michael Hatch dropping 49 second also at 20:46. Evan Escobar finished 1:43 better than his previous best at 20:47, the largest improvement for any Viking boy on the day! Carlos Sagayap dropped 1 second at 21:31 with Sean McGinley (22:14), Gabriel Navarro (22:19), and Dylan Marshall all improving over 30 seconds! This young group continues to impress and show that with continued effort they will be ready to compete with the top teams in the league in the coming years. Overall, the Frosh/Soph team finished fourth, but with the largest squad and the most depth in the league! Knowing they were up against some of the top teams around, the Varsity Viking Boys brought their best while attempting to extend their racing into the post season. Senior Grant Young has found his racing legs this season; his consistency has impressed, and this race was no exception. His confident start and tough racing had him finishing seventh overall at 16:16 to earn first team all-league honors and an individual qualifying slot to CIF prelims! Frosh Cash Klinger raced tough in the meat of the pack to finish 23rd at 17:10 with Soph Emilio Oviedo was a few places back at 17:18. Adam Sandoval had a super race and has continued to improve and race tough at the end of this season, his 17:40 was a solid performance approaching his best at three miles. Alex Basin raced tough with Adam for most of the race and was a few seconds back at 17:43 to finish out the scoring. In his first Varsity Race, Nehemiah Pop got pulled along in the first mile and tried to hang on in the last half of the race to finish in 18:27. While Frosh Kaden Ramos rounded out the group in 18:43. Heavy with underclassmen, the team finished fifth in the league, one place out of qualifying for the post-season. They surely learned from the tough racing of the day and will use their experiences looking to finish a couple of places higher next year. There was a bit of confusion before the Varsity Lady Vikings took to the starting line. They were missing their third fastest runner, and only had six girls to race instead of a full team of seven. This blow didn’t keep the six girls from running some great individual performances First Viking and fifth overall was Emily Farrell who showed her patience and grit as she went out hard with the top girls and finished strong only 30 seconds from first place. This stellar performance, so impressive for just a freshman, earned her a first team all-league placing and punched her ticket to CIF prelims in two weeks at Mt SAC. She is showing the ladies in the Foothill League, one of the most competitive leagues in the CIF Southern Section, that she is here to stay! Liana Sushinsky, and the most consistent racer for the Varsity Vikings, was second behind Emily, just missing an All-League placing by 2 spots. Liana went out with a bit more on the top end of the race, doing her best to work for that CIF team spot and ran 20:53. She looked strong and ran a near best for the season. Freshman Micaella Fenelon, who had to take a week off for an I.T band injury didn’t let that phase her as she finished as the third Lady Viking (22:29) running elbow to elbow with the veteran runners. Not far behind Micaella was Zoe Baeza who found her strength in the second half of the race. Zoe was the fourth Viking to score and ran a 22:51, also consistent to her best times this season. The Vikings fifth and sixth runners to finish were Valentina Soto and Kylie Weber who found each mid race and worked together to the finish line. Kylie stepped in for injured runner Maria Lopez last minute and ran strong for our Lady Vikings. We are so proud of those who showed up and ran so hard for themselves and for the team. CIF for these ladies will have to wait one more year but they’re coming for it!! A small but dedicated squad took the line in the Boys JV race. With a mostly senior crew, this group was looking to finish out their high school cross country racing on a high note. Jacob Kunz led the group earning second team all-league in fourteenth place at 19:13. Next was Damien Turner who had a strong surge in the last mile to move up and finish sixteenth at 19:29. Senior Justin Yuh raced with Damien through two miles before sliding a bit back and finishing at 20:33. While Dillon Jenson rounded out the bunch in 32:15. We will surely miss these characters and the leadership they brought to the team. Once again our JV Girls team showed maturity and poise in box six at the starting line. As the most senior on the Vikings team, these girls are true leaders. Sam Armitage did not mess around, she went after a top spot from the beginning, getting out with the front pack. She ran determinedly the entire race, placing 13th (23:32) and earning that 2nd Team All-League, a recognition that she has been working so hard for this season. Another fierce Viking Lady, coming in second for the team was Gracie Brooke. She had some reservations on the starting line, but they quickly faded as this girl knows how to race once the gun goes off. Two spots behind Gracie was Sophie Tran who ran conservatively but had a smoking kick to the line. Emily Stimac, 4th Viking of the day, ran her pace, found her speed on the downhills and also had a strong kick to the finish line. With the end of regular season racing, the Vikings will surely reflect on the successes and challenges of the season with an eye on continued improvement both individually and as a team. For our two top Vikings, the season continues for at least a couple more weeks with the Southern Section CIF prelims at Mt. SAC on November 11th.