California State Championships

---A seventh place finish at the California State Championships on Saturday did not meet our expectations as a team; however, I applauded the girls after the race on their efforts the last six months. The girls, collectively, were truly disappointed, which is heartening to me because it shows they care about performance, not just participating. Cross Country is no different than your expectations as a parent when a report card arrives in the mail. Mama Clemons and myself have expectations for our team based on our observations throughout the season, we expected to perform better, and we did not. That being said, the process has been a joy, a wonderful group of girls to be around, and I am sad it is over.

California State Cross Country Championships

---Dani Brabender, Aaren Cadieux, Kamilah Foley, Kora Johnson, Justine Rea, Makenna Smith, and Jessica Varela will represent our girls' cross country program at the California State Cross Country Championships on Saturday, November 28, at Woodward Park in Fresno. This is the third consecutive season we have reached Fresno, I expect a fourth next season, and this is our goal each and every season.

C.I.F. Division 1 Cross Country Finals

---Dani Brabender, Kamilah Foley, Kora Johnson, Shelby Niles, Justine Rea,
Makenna Smith, and Jessica Varela will represent our program Saturday in the
C.I.F. Division 1 Cross Country Finals at Mt. San Antonio College. Our goal
is to win the 9:45am race, with the greatest challenges coming from Great
Oak(Temecula Valley), Dana Hills, and Warren(Downey). Wish us well, and good
luck to the boys also, who also have a realistic chance of winning.
---6:30am bus tomorrow, any freshman, sophomore, or junior under 21.20 at
Sea View League Finals is required to attend, all others are invited, and we
will return at 1:00pm. Please bring $5 and a student I.D. for admission.

C.I.F. Division 1 Cross Country Preliminaries

---Kudos to the girls' performance at last Saturday's C.I.F. Division 1
Cross Country Preliminaries, placing five in the top nine, scoring 34
points, and easily winning our heat. On to Finals, and my goal is for our
team to win, plain and simple. Tough task ahead of us; however, the girls
will be ready.
---A huge thank you to the girls who boarded the 6:30am. bus and supported
our efforts. Same thing this Saturday, any freshman, sophomore, or junior
under 21.20 at Sea View League Finals are required to attend, and everyone
else is invited.

Sea View League championships

A huge kudos to the girls' cross country team for capturing Sea View League
championships on all three levels: Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Frosh-Soph.
The girls ran well to say the least. One of my favorite things to do is to
compare times from 2008 to 2009, same course such as today. The following
girls ran significantly better from 2008 to 2009 during Sea View League
Finals at Irvine Regional Park on the same exact course: Kamilah
Foley(18.10-17.20), Justine Rea(18.38-17.24), Makenna Smith(18.40-17.12),
Shelby Niles(18.45-17.54), Jessica Varela(19.59-18.00), Kora
Johnson(19.09-17.33), Dani Brabender(19.39-17.31)...(10.06 for the Seven
Varsity Girls, an average of 1.27 faster)...Aaren Cadieux(18.58-18.07),
Amanda Lee(20.23-19.23), Lauren Moore(20.27-19.31), Amy
Tolentino(20.56-18.44), Alyza Rathor(20.23-19.33), Alex Reich(20.26-19.20),
Melanie Driessen(21.14-19.07), Jocelyn Dorame(21.31-20.44), Allison
Perry(22.29-20.53), Brooke Kather(19.09-18.45), Olivia Smith(22.57-21.31),
Dana Gersten(23.05-21.28), Emily Berg(23.05-19.50), Karen
Ascencio(23.35-20.52), Tiffani Barham(24.05-19.32, #1, WOW!), Crystal
Eng(24.32-22.08), Molly McClary(25.07-23.16), and Jessica
Stewart(25.44-22.56). Again, congratulations to all who ran and contributed
to team victories on all levels. Race winners were Aaren Cadieux(JV) and
Brooke Kather(FS), and our top freshman was Hannah Randall in a PR 19.35,
while four other freshmen broke 20.45, including Brianna Parish(20.19),
Rachel Stillman(20.25), Madison Schuetz(20.28), and Stephanie Lowe(20.37)
Thank You for a great day, a wonderful season...quite a ride. Mama Clemons
and myself are proud to be your coaches. On to CIF and State.

Mt Sac.

---We ran well yesterday at Mt. SAC, the varsity finishing fifth in a stellar field, defeating Dana Hills and accumulating the top team time in Orange County. Makenna Smith continued a super individual season running
17.39 at Mt. SAC, shattering the school record by 23 seconds. Dani Brabender(18.29, a PR at Mt. SAC by over 2 minutes), Kora Johnson(18.29, a
1.54 improvement from 2008), and Justine Rea(18.39, a 46 second improvement from 2008), all ran well.
---The Junior Varsity National Championship 22-team race saw us record the second fastest team time overall, and we finished second in Division 1. The race pitted team's second sevens that ran in either Sweepstake's races. Amy Tolentino(19.07, a 1.35 improvement from 2008), Aaren Cadieux(19.16, injured in 2008), Makenna McGrann(19.22, a 1.31 improvement), Shelby Niles(19.28, a
1.19 improvement), and Melanie Driessen(20.24, a 2.16 improvement) were our top five. Kudos to the team.
---Our freshmen team finished third led by Hannah Randall, and our sophomores were fourth, led by Tiffani Barham. Super efforts by all who competed.

Mt. Sac girls JV

Our girls JV placed five runners in the top 10 to win today's JV Open race at Mt. SAC. 30 teams and 250 runners took part in the race. Running for Trabuco were: Shareen Najjar, Jennifer Dorame, Katelyn Lockwood, Ashley Linder, Brittany Hernandez, Jenna Willey, Sarah Brewer and Riley Logsdon. Kudos!

GO BLUE!