Awesome photo of El Dorado Varsity boys after scoring 18 points to win their league championship

If you have a photo that you would like to share of your team, feel free to email it to albertjcaruana@gmail.com. I will be happy to add it to this post.

PROFILE Stephanie Bambury and Her Legacy at Dougherty Valley

You can check out that article written by Melody Karpinski for MileSplitCA at this link:
https://ca.milesplit.com/articles/322450/profile-stephanie-bambury-and-her-legacy-at-dougherty-valley

You can also check out my interview with Stephanie at this link:
https://ca.milesplit.com/articles/284074/catching-up-with-dougherty-valley-coach-stephanie-bambury

For those of you that remember Julia Stamps...

Her daughter Ashlin is now an 8th grader at Rincon Valley Middle School and has been posting some very fast times. Check out the article linked below by Jim Crowhurst on his website Redwood Empire Running. In the photo from left to right is Ashlin Mallon, Hanne Thomsen and Julia Mallon (formerly Stamps).
https://redwoodempirerunning.com/ashlin-mallon-is-tearing-up-the-courses/

Stanislaus County Mid-Season Rankings

You can check out these rankings at the link below which includes the top-ranked team in Division in the state, the Oakdale boys.

https://runninruben.blogspot.com/2022/10/2022-stanco-mid-season-team-rankings.html?fbclid=IwAR19yOV_RED_YzK5P-KBLx1OJQ0NRxvbmwA15bCwUkx7Z0UIWh16LlVH3is

Also want to direct you to another awesome site that highlights the Redwood Empire area by Jim Crowhurst.

https://redwoodempirerunning.com/

If you know of other similar sites, please add the link in the comment section below.

Mt. SAC Invitational Live results link

I know lots of teams from our area travel down to LA to run the Mt. SAC Invitational. There were races yesterday as well as today. You can check out all the results at the following link:
https://finishedresults.com/meets/3979

NorCal teams that are currently state ranked.

Both ca.milesplit.com and prepcaltrack.com have statewide rankings which you can find at the two links below. For now, here are the teams that are ranked by either or both sites.

Ca.Milesplit Statewide RANKINGS
PrepCalTrack Statewide RANKINGS

Boys Division I
Jesuit (SJS)

Girls Division I
Oak Ridge (SJS)

Boys Division II
Granada (NCS)
Redwood (NCS)
Whitney (SJS)
Monte Vista (NCS)
Palo Alto (CCS)

Girls Division II
Los Altos (CCS)
St. Francis, Mt. View (CCS)
Palo Alto (CCS)
Granite Bay (SJS)
St. Francis, Sacramento (SJS)
Whitney (SJS)
Monte Vista (NCS)

Boys Division III
Oakdale (SJS)
Campolindo (NCS)
Maria Carrillo (NCS)

Girls Division III
Campolindo (NCS) defending state champions
Montgomery (NCS)
Newark Memorial (NCS)

Boys Division IV
Scotts Valley (CCS)
Albany (NCS) defending state champions
Carmel (CCS)
Santa Cruz (CCS)

Girls Division IV
Scotts Valley (CCS)
St. Mary's College (NCS)
Carmel (CCS)

Boys Division V
Menlo (CCS)
Crystal Springs Uplands School (CCS)
University (NCS)
Lick-Wilmerding (NCS) defending state champions
Nueva (CCS)
College Prep (NCS)
Convent & Stuart Hall (NCS)

Girls Division V
University (NCS) defending state champions
Lick-Wilmerding (NCS)
Convent & Stuart Hall (NCS)
Nueva (CCS)
Menlo (CCS)
Crystal Springs Uplands School (CCS)
Castilleja (CCS)

Central Coast Section Team Rankings

http://lynbrooksports.prepcaltrack.com/ATHLETICS/XC/2022/xc_rank.txt

Northern California Cross Country Results

Mariner Invitational at Hayward HS (NCS course)
https://ca.milesplit.com/meets/502896-moreau-phil-wilder-invitational-2022/results

Roughrider Invitational at Woodward Park (State meet course)
https://ca.milesplit.com/meets/494641-rough-rider-invitational-2022/results#.Y03GjuzMIq0

Terry Ward Invitational at Baylands Park
http://lynbrooksports.prepcaltrack.com/ATHLETICS/XC/2022/tward.htm

Any other results? Add them in the comment section below.

Northern California results

Crystal Springs Invitational results:
https://www.rtspt.com/events/cif/2022Meets/serra/mp/
Santa Cruz sophomore Eli Fitchen-Young ran 14:57.0 to finish in 2nd place in the Championship Varsity Boys race. That time makes him the fastest sophomore ever on the course breaking the 14:58 mark set by Mt. Pleasant's Felix Soto set in 1977.

Clovis Invitational results:
https://finishedresults.trackscoreboard.com/meets/10826/events
Los Altos girls win the Championship girl's race taking down some very good teams. Sophomore Hanne Thomsen was the individual winner running 17:04.2. For the boys, the top NorCal runner was Davis senior Ryan Mitchell who finished in 5th place in the Championship Boys race. The top team was the Granada boys who finished in 3rd place behind Newbury Park and San Clemente.

Pacific Grove Cross Country Invitational at Palo Corona Regional Park
https://ca.milesplit.com/meets/494638-pacific-grove-palo-corona-invitational-2022/results#.Y0MAvOzMKqA

If you have other runners or teams that should be mentioned as well, please feel free to comment below.

Crystal Springs Invitational Participating teams

You can check out the teams participating in the varsity and championship varsity races for both boys and girls at this LINK. Some of the competing teams will have their varsity athletes at Clovis but there should be some excellent races tomorrow that includes one of the best teams in Oregon, Central Catholic.

Northern California results

SCVAL #2 at the Crystal Springs Course:
http://lynbrooksports.prepcaltrack.com/ATHLETICS/XC/2022/scval-2.htm
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/malcolmslaney/collections/72157721124104138/

WBAL #1 at the Crystal Springs Course:
https://www.rtspt.com/events/cif/2022Meets/wbal1xc/

Mountain Valley XC Meet #1 (SJS)
https://timerhub.com/get_web_index.php?page=redcaptiming.com/2022/mvlxc1/

Any other results? Post link in comment section.

Menlo-Atherton cross country shines as Half Moon Bay’s Artichoke Invitational back at full force

Here is something that is super rare, a score of 15 at an invitational. Following article from today's San Mateo Journal by Terry Bernal.

Half Moon Bay’s host Artichoke Invitational has long been a benchmark meet to signal the start of the high school cross-country season.

But while the Artichoke Invite returned last year after its cancelation during the COVID season of 2020, it wasn’t until this year the cross-country meet, in its 51st running, returned in full force.

Eighty-one teams attended Saturday’s meet on the campus of Half Moon Bay High School, more than doubling last year’s attendance when many schools throughout the state still were not traveling.

“It was fun to see just athletes all over from Northern California and the Central Valley coming into Half Moon Bay and running some smoking times and having a fantastic time — smiles laughs,” said Paul Farnsworth, Half Moon Bay’s cross-country head coach. “It was a fun time.”

Menlo-Atherton dominated the girls’ varsity large schools race. The Bears recorded the top five finishes, with junior Tatum Olesen earning her first individual cross-country championship in over a year with a time of 14 minutes, 3 seconds. Senior Katie Lorenz was second (14:09); senior Chloe Pilette third (14:46); junior Cleo Rehkopf fourth (14:50); and junior Sofia Melani fifth (14:45) to round out the rare feat.

“Yes it is,” M-A head coach Eric Wilmurt said. “I have not been a part of a perfect score in my 28 years of coaching. It’s fairly rare. … It’s hard to wrap your head around.”

The meet included a historic performance as well, as Scotts Valley junior Ashlyn Boothby smashed the girls’ record on the 2.3-mile course with an early-morning run of 13:25. It was the second straight year Boothby — the 2021 Central Coast Section Division IV champion — won the Artichoke girls’ varsity small schools race for divisions 3-5. Last year as a sophomore, she won it in 13:52.

“Smokin’ time too,” Farnsworth said. “And she looks so smooth. She looks like she’s jogging. She a fabulous runner.”

A Coastside tradition
Since the Artichoke Invitational debuted in 1971, there have only been two seasons when the HMB campus wasn’t converted into a ginormous cross-country course for the annual event. The first time was in 2006, when the campus was undergoing renovations. The second was in 2020.

This year, 81 teams competed in the meet that includes rows of haybales and the infamous Cougar Hill. It was a cool day, and a little overcast, which turned out to be prime running conditions, according to Farnsworth.

“We had some really speedy times,” Fansworth said.

The boys’ varsity large schools race saw Fremont-Sunnyvale senior take the individual championship with a time of 12:09. M-A junior Aidan Doherty took second place in 12:14; and Woodside senior Max Hohendorf took fifth in 12:31.

In the boys’ varsity small schools race, St. Mary’s College High School senior Mateo Malko-Allen took first place in 11:56. Nueva School senior Joshua Byun took seventh in 12:42; and junior Hideto Hara was Half Moon Bay’s top finisher, taking 11th place in 12:49 in the field of 233 runners.

Farnsworth also chocked up the event as a huge moral victory for Half Moon Bay.

“That was just absolutely fantastic,” Farnsworth said. “Kids were smiling. Just teams from everywhere. It felt like cross country again.”

Have a day, M-A
Farnsworth was also spellbound by the performance of the M-A girls’ team, which not only included the top five finishers in the varsity large schools race. Junior Annie Pflaum was seventh (15:02) to cap the Bears’ extraordinary day, scoring 15 points to win the team title.

“I have not seen that at the Artichoke, not in a varsity race,” Farnsworth said. “It’s rare. … Any time you score under 20, you are just killing the field.”

M-A is running with a lot of conviction this season after finishing on a disappointing note in 2021. The Bears have never sent a girls’ cross-country team to the CIF State Cross Country finals. But last year was looking to be the year, all the way up to the team recording the second-best time at the Central Coast Section Division I championships.

The top two finishers at the CCS championships earn bids to the state meet. The problem was, M-A and Los Altos finished tied in the team time element. The tiebreaker was awarded to Los Altos as their sixth runner finished with a better time than M-A’s. And while the Bears still sent three individuals — Olesen, Lorenz and Melani — to the state meet, the program has yet to ever do so as a team.

“Yeah, that’s clearly their direction is to get to the state championships and do something there hopefully,” Wilmurt said. “But there’s a lot of running left to do. … We’re talking two months away.”