This past Wednesday, October 30th, the Huskies participated in the finale of the Trans Valley League for Cross Country. They drove an hour to Sonora’s “Wildcat Ranch” cross country course to take part.
Prior to the Finals meet, a few selected people were requested for their input going into this event, including their goals, ideas, and prospects. Contemplating about the teams future on the Varsity Boys side, Joel Bernard, science teacher and the main coach of Hughson High’s cross country team, said, “At the beginning of the season, I was hoping that we’d be competitive enough to hang with Ripon, who appeared much better than us on paper. So far, we’ve beaten Ripon twice. I’m pretty confident in our abilities to win the TVL finals meet.” For JV, he continued, “We should win this easily, despite moving Palos and Nava up. We put 8 runners in the top 10 at the last TVL meet and have only gotten better since then.” With as much depth as the team has, there is a bar they must reach. They went into League Finals confident, and it definitely showed.
Furthering on confidence, runner Ty Swain, a Sophomore and top 10 on the team, said, “I see myself winning the JV finals race, Ripon K.”
Reflecting on the girls side, Bernard said, ”I was utterly confident in our ability to win TVL with this group at the beginning of the season,” and, “Plus two of our varsity girls have been sick. I’ve moved a couple of JV girls up, and that should help, but we’re going to have to work some magic to come home with a win. I think that once we are healthy, we’ll be able to get Hilmar at the section meet in 2 and a half weeks.” With a few injuries and sickness, the team had rough chances prior to the race, with lost confidence from the pre-season. Fortunately, once everyone gets back to 100%, the team will be as strong as ever.
Being thoughtful for after finals, Bernard included, “Both varsity squads have a good chance to make state. … Right now, I think our boys are probably 2nd or 3rd in the section,” and also said, “On the girls side, if fully healthy, I feel like we’re locked in a 3 way dog fight for the 3rd slot to the state meet with Hilmar and Colfax.” It seems if they dig a little deeper, Hughson will secure one of three spots to the state meet.
As the finals races occurred, results are as follows:
Varsity Boys: 1st
Varsity Girls: 2nd
JV Boys: 1st
JV Girls: 4th
The Varsity Boys were fortunate enough to pull away as league champions, winning by 19 points over Ripon. Due to the unfortunate circumstances of the Varsity Girls, they ended as the second place team in the TVL, just behind Hilmar. JV Boys performed as expected, and their steady improvement will keep showing. Runner Ty Swain was able to win this race, just as he said he would, in a time of 11:53.28 for 2 miles. For the JV Girls, they have been improving largely as well, but by moving up a couple of the top girls into the Varsity race, it hurt their chances of doing well.
This was the first time this year that the TVL was held on this course, being foreign to all teams except Sonora. Even so, there were still many personal records set and improvement being made. Juan Palos, a freshman and our 4th runner on the team, had this to say about the course, “The Wildcat Ranch course was interesting. It was like they measured out 3 miles and just made it a course. Good scenery, trees, birds, dust… people falling down.” Many runners, if they haven’t practiced hills, definitely felt it in this race. For the Huskies, this gives them a taste of how to push the hills when you’re tired. With both sub-section and sections courses being full of hills, Wildcat Ranch was a great experience for those moving forward.
At this point in time, the team is heading into the Cross Country version of playoffs. Sub-sections would be considered quarter-finals, sections semi-finals, and then the state meet as finals. This Saturday, November 9th, Hughson will head up to Angels Camp to run sub-sections at the infamous Frogtown course. Good luck Huskies!
