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Girls cross-country third at league meet

Fallbrook High School’s girls cross-country team finished third in the Avocado League meet November 10 at Escondido’s Kit Carson Park.

The Warriors had a team total of 73 points. Rancho Buena Vista won the meet with a team total of 26 points while Vista had 45 points. Carlsbad finished fourth with 91 points, while El Camino’s score of 128 placed fifth and Oceanside was sixth with 187 points.

“They went out there and did everything right in preparation for the meet,” said Fallbrook coach Troy Hamlin. “They really, really stepped up and beat some people they’ve never beaten before.”

The North County Conference consists of the Avocado, Palomar, and Valley leagues. The three leagues hold their league finals at the same course, which alternates every other year between Kit Carson Park and Guajome Park in Vista. Runners from each league compete in separate races.

Since last year’s league meet was held at Guajome Park, no Fallbrook runner had competed at Kit Carson Park since 2005, but those runners who were on the team in both 2005 and 2007 set personal records for the 2.6-mile course.

Meet organizers Mike Cummings of Valley Center High School and Dennis McClanahan of Mt. Carmel High School opted to honor the late Marty Hauck, who coached the Fallbrook boys cross-country team until his death from a heart attack September 19, by creating the Marty Hauck Award to be given to the boys and girls runners with the fastest times for the entire meet. Torrey Pines sophomore Megan Morgan earned the girls Marty Hauck Award with a time of 15:13. The top Avocado League girls runner was Rancho Buena Vista junior Heather Zytkewicz, who posted a time of 15:29.

Cross-country times are rounded up to the nearest second, so second-place runner Shanna St. Laurent, a freshman at Rancho Buena Vista, also had a time of 15:29. Fallbrook’s top two runners both had times of 16:27; junior Noelle Garcia placed eighth while freshman Kristin Parry finished ninth. “Kristin has really, really stepped it up in the last couple of weeks,” Hamlin said.

The top ten finishers in the league meet earned first-team all-league honors, so Garcia and Parry received berths on the Avocado League’s first team. “That’s quite an accomplishment for both of them,” Hamlin said.

The 11th through 20th runners earned second-team Avocado League recognition, and two Fallbrook seniors were on that all-league squad. Brianna Lopez beat her course personal record by one second, finishing at 16:38 to place 13th. Leslie Grantham’s time of 16:53 was a personal record by approximately 45 seconds and was worth 17th place.

“She beat some people in that race who she has never beaten before,” Hamlin said of Grantham. “She did a great job out there holding up the fourth spot.”

The positions of the top five runners from each school are added for the team score, and while a school’s sixth and seventh runners are not scored those runners can add positions to an opposing school’s top five runners. Although only the top seven runners from a school can be involved in the scoring, a team can enter up to 12 runners at the league meet. Vista’s seventh runner finished 20th while Rancho Buena Vista had seven runners in the top 29.

Fallbrook junior Olivia Tidd thus placed 28th among all runners and 26th for scoring purposes. Tidd had a time of 17:41.

“She held up that fifth spot,” Hamlin said of Tidd. “Our 4-5 are pretty much as good as any 4-5’s around the county.”

Fallbrook’s sixth runner was senior Cassie Mulkey, whose time of 17:56 placed 33rd overall and 29th for scoring purposes. Since senior Christa Bausch was injured and did not compete in the league meet, freshman Nicole Van Duzer ended up as Fallbrook’s seventh runner. In her second-ever varsity race, Van Duzer took Fallbrook’s seventh position with a time of 18:01, which equated to the 34th position overall and the 30th for scoring purposes.

“It was a huge race for Nicole,” Hamlin said. “I was very impressed with what she did out there.”

Freshman Brittany Smith was the 35th overall finisher at 18:07 in her first-ever varsity race, and freshman Amanda Mulkey was 42nd with a time of 18:28.

Senior Jade Lawrence’s time of 19:11 was worth 52nd place and was also 1:51 faster than her 2005 time. “To get that kind of performance from Jade, I couldn’t be more happy,” Hamlin said.

Junior Carrie Jercinovich placed 55th with a time of 19:29.

“It’s been a pleasure to work with them, and every single girl on this team has become very important to me,” Hamlin said. “I can’t express enough how pleased I am with this girls team.”

 

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