Warrior girls share fifth in cross country standings

Fallbrook High School's girls cross country team ended the Valley League season with a share of fifth place in the league standings.

The league championship formula is based on a combination of the results of the two varsity league cluster meets, each of which accounts for 25 percent of the weighted formula, and the results from the league championship meet, which provides the other half of the weighted results.

Fallbrook finished fifth, ahead of Escondido, in the league cluster meets Sept. 27 at Guajome Park and Oct. 25 at Kit Carson Park, but Escondido had the better score at the league championship meet Nov. 10 at Guajome Park.

Fallbrook head coach Troy Hamlin would have preferred a larger team but did not fault the runners who participated for the Warriors' low league finish.

"I'm not a bit disappointed or unhappy with this team this year," said Hamlin. "The girls learned a lot about themselves. They learned a lot about running."

The team consisted of three seniors, two juniors, three sophomores, and two freshmen.

"None of them had a huge amount of training," Hamlin said.

That included workouts prior to the start of team practice. "The cross country season starts in June, not in August," Hamlin said.

The 10-member team also did not allow the Warriors to run in groups. A larger team can have more runners with similar speed practice against each other, but Hamlin did not have that luxury.

The league championship meet was contested on a 3.08-mile course. The fastest Fallbrook time was the 21:36.2 posted by freshman Lauren Suppe, which gave her 22nd place among the 51 runners.

"She's a very talented freshman, and she's just going to continue to develop and progress," Hamlin said. "She's got all the tools to be number one on our team for the next few years."

The 35th overall finisher in the league championship race was senior Audrey Petersen, whose time was 23:22.4. A time of 23:23.2 gave sophomore Iselah Cabello 36th place. Jessica Wilbert was the 42nd finisher and the senior's time was 23:51.0. Maya Rink completed the course in 24:10.8 to give the junior 43rd place. The final league meet for senior Katie Hutzler included a 46th-place finish and a time of 25:06.0. Zuszeth Montiel, a sophomore, had the 48th-place time of 25:18.8. The 50th runner across the finish line was freshman Maddy Gaul, who posted a time of 26:48.3.