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Sullivan 6/7 girls second, 6/7 boys third at championship meet

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Sullivan Middle School's sixth and seventh grade girls placed second and the Wildcats' sixth/seventh grade boys were third at the North County Middle School Cross Country League championship meet Oct. 28 at Kit Carson Park in Escondido.

Twenty runners in each race received medals and eight of those wore Sullivan uniforms. The Wildcats had four medalists in the sixth/seventh grade girls race, three medal places in the sixth/seventh boys race, and one medal winner in the eighth-grade girls race.

Cross country team scores add the positions of a school's first five finishers; the sixth and seventh runners are not scored but can add points to other teams' totals. San Elijo Middle School in San Marcos had five of the first six finishers in the sixth/seventh girls race and won that division with 20 team points. Sullivan had 64 points. San Marcos Middle School was third with 99 points.

Second place for the sixth/seventh grade girls met the expectations of Sullivan coach Tamara Miller. "The girls were matched up against an almost near perfect San Elijo team," Miller said.

After the first race of the season, Miller didn't foresee her girls overtaking San Elijo by the end of the season, so her goal was to bring the Wildcats' point total closer to the Eagles' score. "All season, as every meet was run, the girls narrowed down the point difference between us and San Elijo. The improvement from each of my 6/7 girls was impressive," she said.

The championship meet course was 2.0 miles. The first Sullivan finisher, sixth-grader Hayley Rocha, placed eighth overall with a time of 15:06.69. Sullivan seventh-grader Trulie Eisenhauer had the ninth-place time of 15:08.42. Sixth-grader Nylee Huntington completed the course in 15:58.93 for 11th place. The 16:02.33 time of seventh-grader Scarlett Zaleschuk was worth 14th place. Seventh-grader Emma Votaw dropped back later in the race and became the 26th finisher 17:04.75 after the start.

"Having your top five girls within a minute is key, and I am so pleased they took to my coaching to work together and stay within a pack of five. I would always encourage each runner to chase after another of their teammates," Miller said. "Running in a pack is the key to success in cross country."

Seventh-grader Shailyn Cope had a 17:46.06 performance which gave her 33rd place. The 48th-place time of 19:44.46 was posted by seventh-grader Anjali Rameschwar. Sixth-grader Isabell Gunther finished in 25:47.96 for 81st place.

A sixth-grade or seventh-grade student can run in an eighth-grade race. Miller opted to leave her sixth-grade and seventh-grade teams together, but next year some of the current sixth-graders as well as the 2021-22 seventh-graders may be running for the Wildcats' eighth-grade team. "I look forward to seeing how they mature in the 8 girls race next season," Miller said.

San Marcos Middle School won the 6/7 boys team championship with 44 points, San Elijo accumulated 62 points for second, Sullivan had 78 points, and Double Peak Middle School in San Marcos placed fourth with 85 points.

"I was very pleased with them placing third that day due to being down a top runner," Miller said. "Unfortunately our third/fourth runner had some back pain and also got sick that day during the race and did not finish. With him we would have taken first or second."

Lyndon Morelos of Double Peak Middle School in San Marcos won the race in 12:58.95. Sullivan sixth-grader Finn Phillips was fifth at 13:32.50 and Sullivan seventh-grader David Peel finished sixth with a time of 13:40.52.

"Finn's goal that day was to stay right behind Lyndon the entire race and to overtake him with about 100 meters left. Unfortunately Lyndon outraced him that day," Miller said.

"Finn fell behind a decent distance by the one-mile mark and maintained from there," Miller said. "David really improved over the season. He continued to get closer to Finn."

The next Sullivan finisher, seventh-grader Isaac Tyler, took 18th place and had a time of 14:30.40. Seventh-grader Hunter Dean became the 36th finisher 16:18.12 after the race began. The 17:41.76 performance of sixth-grader Dylan Ortega gave him 46th place. Seventh-grader Shay Marsaglia crossed the finish line in 50th place and raced for 18:39.24.

Because a minimum of five runners is needed for a team score, Sullivan could not place with only three eighth-grade boys and two eighth-grade girls. "My goal for my eighth-graders, which were all brand new runners minus my only veteran Henry Walter (the coronavirus shutdown eliminated 2020-21 competitions for the North County Middle School Cross Country League; Walter ran as a sixth-grader in 2019) was to help instill a love of running in them and to work on their desire to run in high school," Miller said. "Having Henry as a veteran helped to inspire the other four eighth-graders as he led them and showed them the way of cross country."

Walter finished 31st in the eighth-grade boys race and had a time of 15:05.20. Colton Gullo placed 48th and finished in 19:58.38. Alan Smith was the 56th finisher and took 28:34.50.

Alice Ho captured 20th place in the girls race and posted a time of 17:28.68. The 18:14.68 time of Isabella Homberger made her the 27th finisher.

Miller made her Sullivan coaching debut in 2016 when the Wildcats had 28 harriers. The 2016 sixth/seventh girls won the league championship and in 2017 both of Sullivan's girls teams took first place.

Miller compares rebuilding the team this year to taking over the program in 2016. "I would say the years are pretty comparable, minus the fact that I had four full scoring teams in 2016," she said.

 

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