#MTSACXC Friday Sweeps & Varsity Previews

Mt SAC XC Invitational
Jeff George

Mt. SAC Division 3 Preview


Sweeps Races

Cathedral Catholic has been at the same meet as Rubidoux, but their star runners (Joaquin Martinez de Pinillos, Erik Gonzalez, and Kevin Ramos) did not race each other directly because they're in different grades.  They will square off in the final race of the Friday session, and when you also factor in Jacob Smith (Pacifica) you have a really exciting front group to watch.  Likewise for the team competition, where Brea Olinda and West Torrance will battle - and don't be surprised if Baldwin Park tries to get in the mix. Overall, this is shaping up to be a nearly perfect preview of the Southern Section D3 finals.

On the girls' side, McKenna Brown and Kristin Fahy of La Costa Canyon may be able to pull away from the rest of the individual contenders as they prepare for a championship season schedule that involves another rugged course at Balboa Park.  LCC looks like the strongest team in one of the smallest races on the schedule (probably because a few of the other heavy hitters got moved into the D1/D2 Sweeps on Saturday). If anyone is going to challenge them, it should be Esperanza, a team with potential that hasn't quite put it all together yet this season.


Varsity Races

Seniors hold the top individual spots coming into the 4 boys varsity races in this division. Jonathan Cohen (Beverly Hills) looks like he has a lock on Race #15, while the West Valley duo of Salvador Chavez and Carlos Reyes Cortes should roll in Race #19.  Cathedral City, running in Race 15, looks like they have the strongest team outside of the Sweeps race, and quite possibly could put up good enough results to knock off a few of the teams in that race (can't wait for combined results!).

Sylvia Cruz-Albrecht (Oak Park) was one of our preseason sleeper candidates for breaking into the state-wide top 25 this season, based on her strong 3200 times in the spring. She has run well this fall but hasn't yet cracked those rankings, and a strong performance out of Race #18 could be a big step forward.  Watch out for Lucina Vincent (El Dorado) in Race #16, too. Team-wise, Race #18 is the one to watch: Torrance and Yorba Linda will go head to head there, along with Laguna Hills. Oak Park and Santa Margarita could also factor into that race.


Division 3 Virtual Meets


The event will be streamed live on FloTrack and available to MileSplit Universal Subscribers. 


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