From Coach Carstens:
On a windy Friday afternoon, the Whippet CC teams competed against some of the area’s best teams and runners for a chance to earn a trip to state. In this event, the top two finishing teams and the top five individuals not on those two teams earn a trip to compete at next Saturday’s WIAA State CC Meet.
The boys were off the line first in a stacked field that boasted four ranked teams in the state. Sophomore Trenten Zahn punched his ticket to the WIAA State CC Meet by finishing sixth overall in the field and behind all seniors ahead of him, earning the third individual qualifier position. Trenten was absolutely committed to the effort it would take to compete at this level. His racing grit and savviness is special to watch in his young career. Trenten covered the challenging UW-Whitewater 5K course in 17:39. Freshman Gio Anello pushed himself to stay with Trenten as long as possible and finished just a few ticks off his best time on the course he ran a week earlier at conference in 18:10. Gio finished a really nice freshman season by placing 18th and was the second best freshman in the field. Aidan Coburn was also close to his best time from a week ago to place 29th with a time of 18:53. Emmanuel Rodriguez, Dan Trost, and Will Hofmann were a great pack trucking around the course together with all three competing in a WIAA Sectional for the first time. Emmanuel crossed first for the pack with a time of 19:50 to finish 50th, senior Dan Trost competed in his final race to place 51st with a new personal best on the UW-Whitewater course of 19:59 and Will completed the course in 20:01, good enough for 52nd. Freshman Cooper Hammond battled a foot injury and gave it his best effort on this day to cross the line in 84th and an overall finish time of 22:22. The boys’ program finished in 6th place out of 15 teams competing.
The girls’ team fed off the positive vibes that were created from the boy’s races and ran some gutsy races as well. This race also had four ranked teams in the state. Senior Nicole Tomomitsu ran a superb race and shocked herself by placing 5th overall, the second individual qualifying spot, and even a few seconds faster than a week ago at conference. There is no quit in Nicole. A year ago, she placed 44th at this meet but she continued to battle, persevere and show grit with some of best runners in the state. With her blond ponytail whipping at full force, she gobbled up competitor after competitor in the last half mile. Crystal Chan was out to redeem herself after a less than ideal conference race. I’m proud to have seen her run a stronger race and finish it on her own terms going into the offseason. She crossed the line in 34th and at time of 23:08. Trinity Nickels completed a nice freshman season by really branching out her final two races and pushing herself to new heights. Nearly matching her time from a week ago she finished in 40th with a time of 23:32. Junior Hailey Prager showed serious toughness through some challenges she has had with her calves in the back half of the season to finish 50th place and a time of 23:51, 19 seconds faster than what she did 8 days prior on the same course. Once again Sophie Walton, Jenna Lee and Jenny Villarreal traded places several times throughout the race and Sophie came out again in 77th, Jenna Lee in 78th and Jenny in 80th. The girls’ program finished in 9th out of 14 teams competing.
Both Trenten and Nicole will be competing at the State Meet on Saturday, Oct. 27 at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids. Trenten will race first in the D2 race at 1:20 followed with Nicole in her D2 race at 3:05. This will be Trenten’s first time at the Ridges and Nicole’s 3rd trip to the Ridges to compete in the WIAA State CC meet!
Boys Results: https://www.wiaawi.org/Portals/0/PDF/Results/Cross_Country/2018/bwhitewatersectional.htm
Girls Results: https://www.wiaawi.org/Portals/0/PDF/Results/Cross_Country/2018/gwhitewatersectional.htm
#runwhippetstrong #thewhippetway
