Yesterday at the 3A South Regional Cross Country Championships hosted by River Hill HS, the Reservoir Cross Country team competed against some of the best teams in the state.
The girls’ team, led by junior, Scarlett Guenin, and senior, Sam Swirsky, finished as the 7th best team in the Region. Neha Hasan (9th) ran a personal best time by 2:42. Debbie Rivas (11th) ran a 34s personal best of 27:03. Celeste Martin (9th) hasn’t run in a few weeks due to shin splints, but felt good enough to run for the Gators and she had a great race! Running only 1 minute off her personal best time, everyone was super excited to see Celeste back out on the course! Aleena Hasan (9th) had a great day! She ran a personal best by 2:26 for new 5k PR of 24:33. Sam Swirsky (12th – Captain) fought hard for 23:24, only 7s off of her personal best time. Finally, Scarett Guenin (11th- Captain) ran 19:58 (she broke 20 – that’s a big deal) which is a 35s personal best time and now holds the 7th fastest time in Reservoir History.
Scarlett will have the opportunity to represent Reservoir at the State Championships next weekend, Nov 11 at Hereford HS.
The varsity boys’ team, led by Senior, Kidus Zeleke (Captain), showed up big time on Thursday! Kidus and the boys ran smart races and utilized our team’s strengths to earn a qualifying spot to the State Championships. Kidus ran a smart race and ran with confidence. The race went out quick and he sat back. The top group of four runners got away from him early, but then he slowly brought them back. With just over a ½ mile to go, Kidus was in second and gaining quickly on first place. Although Kidus didn’t catch the loan leader, Kidus had his best race of the season and finished the season off with a season best time of 16:10.
Behind Kidus was the other six varsity runners. Senior, Josh McDerment, lead the charge as he ran a personal best time of 17:57 and improving his previous best mark by 22s. Right behind him was Shaun Desai (10th) in 17:58 which is a 16s improvement and Jack Waltman (10th) in 17:59 which was a 32s improvement. Connor Walsh(10th) rounded out the scoring five runners with a time of 18:09 which was a personal best time by 43s. Freshman, Jackson Pascarello, had a really strong second half of the race and finished with a time of 18:43 which is only 10s off his personal best time. Vijay Maheswaran, senior, had an amazing race with a 40s improvement for a 5k personal best time of 18:55.
The boys ran as a pack and utilized each other’s strengths to help the boys finish 5th overall and earn a trip to the State Championships!
After the Regional Championships and all the other teams went home, Reservoir ran the rest of the team on the same 5k course as a Team Time Trial. These runners were cheered on a supported by the varsity athletes. Some of them jumped in and ran along side the runners to help them to run personal best times. It was great to see such team work and support from all the athletes!
Here is a list of the runners that ran a Personal Best time or ran very close to their personal best time:
Colin Poon ran 18:41 for a 36s improvement.
Jimmy Steinbaum ran 19:10 for a 30s improvement.
Griffin Ellinghaus ran 19:20, only 12s off his personal best time.
Cheren Song ran 19:35 for a 26s improvement.
Eli Dickie ran 19:54 for a 2s improvement.
Evan Chan ran 20:30 for a 32s improvement.
Jonathan Ye ran 20:31 for a 55s improvement.
Dexter Cooley ran 21:15 for a 25s improvement.
Conan Chung ran 21:19 for a 52s improvement.
Justin Vu ran 21:48 for a 63s improvement.
Tam Vo ran 2214 which tied his personal best time.
Here are some fun Stats:
Jackson Pascarello finished the season with the 7th fastest freshman time in school history with a time of 18:33.
Griffin Ellinghaus finished the season with the 17th fastest freshman time in school history with a time of 19:08.
Shaun Desai, Jack Waltman and Connor Walsh finish the season with the 16th, 17th and 19th fastest Sophomore times in school history with 17:58, 17:59 and 18:09.
Scarlett Guenin has the 5th best Junior Time in school history with a time of 19:58.
Scarlett’s time of 19:58 also ranks her a the 7th fastest female runner in Reservoir History.
Kidus finished his career at Reservoir as the 2nd fastest male all time for the 5k at 16:06.
FYI: Booster's New Letter which did a feature of the boys team. CLICK HERE
Team Pictures from Regionals:
Photos by Cheren Song, Adeniyi Adegbuyi, & Debbie Rivas https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMG64AfGVGCoQ9Cv157Qhy3vLvKVzVbhf3336iA4UQPWDGnGd-vke_a4gMBUryUYQ?pli=1&key=Sjk4a1p1UmI4S2FvMkRYQUlzOW1DcGRBazVNUmhR
Photos by Burair Rizvi:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-8PAga6tE_N4RRFLtzlEmI7a-m0nA_4Q