In the Southern California Regional Championships a sixth place finish wasn’t what the men’s cross country team had in mind at Cuesta College, Saturday Nov. 6.
However, the Warriors qualified for the state championships for the 14th time in 15 years.
The meet will take place at Woodward Park Course in Fresno on Saturday at 11 a.m.
“Even on a day off, we were still solid with our sixth place finish,” coach Dean Lofgren said. “We know we are better than this and will carry that thought and goal into the state championships.”
At Fresno, the cross country team will face tough competition from Southern and Northern California.
“This meet brings the best from Southern and Northern California together in the grand finale,” Lofgren said.
Some of the competition includes Orange Coast, American River, San Bernardino, and Ventura.
“Orange Coast seems to be the team to beat, but they look unbeatable,” freshman Tyler Stover said.
However, the squad is confident with all the training and hard work they’ve done up to this point.
“I think we are ready, so there’s nothing we could do at this point anymore,” sophomore Kendall Lopez said.
“The hard days of training are over, and if you’re not in shape by now you, will not be by Saturday,” he said.
An important factor going into the meet is that the squad is confident that the course in Fresno will suit them just fine.
“We feel pretty good going in,” Lofgren said. “The Woodward Park is considered a very fair course in that it is mostly flat dirt trails with only a couple challenging hills.”
Another thing that the Warriors have going for them is their renewed health.
The squad is finally close to being completely healthy just in time for its most important meet.
“Everyone is healthy and I would say on the cutting edge of being one hundred percent,” Lofgren said. “We are as ready as we can possibly be with respect to each individual and as a team.”
However, the Warriors’ problem all season has been their inability to put it together for a complete race, but Lofgren said he believes that they can do it this Saturday.
“We just need to put it all together on the same day now,” Lofgren said.
Freshman Jason Hanakeawe, who has been hampered by bone spurs in his right heel, is one of those players who should be close to 100 percent.
This season has been very difficult for Hanakeawe, but he’s tried to remain patient waiting for the injury to heal.
“I am feeling one hundred percent healthy,” Hanakeawe said. “My injury has pretty much gone away, but it still hurts a little sometimes and that’s expected.”
At Cuesta, the heavily favored Orange Coast remained undefeated winning with 38 points.
San Bernardino was the next closest with 133 points, followed by Ventura (141), Southwestern (151), Mt. SAC (174) and the Warriors rounded out the top six with 213 points.
Even though the Warriors qualified for the state championships, they were very disappointed with their performance at Cuesta.
“We were disappointed because we finished sixth,” Lopez said. “We know we are better than some of those teams that were in front of us at Cuesta”
Freshman Bill Rogers and Hanakeawe ran well, finishing 19th and 22nd place, respectively.
Lofgren was very pleased with their efforts, especially of Hanakeawe, who he believes is nearing his potential.
“Rogers looked comfortable up front, as did Hanakeawe, who is obviously ready to go,” Lofgren said.
Hanakeawe has only been training for a few months, but with each race, he is becoming more comfortable.
“I think twenty-second is pretty good for where I’m at,” Hanakeawe said. “I’ve only had about two months of solid training and I felt pretty comfortable in the Cuesta race.”
However, other runners had sub-par races falling short of their expectations, but none more surprising than Stover.
Stover ran his worst race of the season, placing in 100th place.
“I had a horrible race,” Stover said. “I couldn’t get anything going.”
