We asked varsity girls’ winner Lizzie Grolle of Sonora, who caught teammate Samantha Smith in the third mile, to say a little bit about her race. “The first part of the race I was just trying to catch Samantha. I caught her at the dip about a half mile from the end, although I was a little worried about the footing there.” Lizzie said she was very happy and that winning league was one of her goals for this season. She included Smith in another one of her other season goals. “I think we can make it individually to state.” Sonora’s Division 3 section race will be in Folsom at 12:40 pm on November 14th.
Despite taking first, second, third, and fourth place in the girls’ race, Sonora could not close out Sierra High School. Sierra put five of the next six across the line and claimed the victory, 37-45. #1 for Sierra (fifth overall) was Junior Katelyn Carbiener who is running this year for the first time. Despite being new to the sport, Katelyn had no problem doing the math. After she saw four yellow shirts cross ahead of her, Katelyn said, “I still thought we had a chance with this type of scoring,” as opposed to the early season dual meets. As it turned out, Sonora endured a sizeable 7-minute 4-5 gap and Katelyn’s hunch proved true. Normally Sierra’s #3 girl, this time Carbiener kept a steadier pace to have more juice at the end. “Everyone’s really excited and happy that our hard work paid off. And we’re really happy that the coaches are excited.”
The boys’ winner was senior Alejandro Garcia of Ceres High School. A confident and Garcia said after the race, “Getting the VOL championship was one of my main goals at the start of the year.” He also pegged the Division 3 section title and a top ten finish at state among his other goals. When asked about Chris Kigar of El Camino looming in the future, Garcia was unphased. “He beat me last season, but I outkicked him at state.” Alejandro plans to go to Modesto JC to continue his studies and running.
Valley Oak League Finals Pictures Joe Hartman brings us 49 action pictures
