Claudia Lane an outlier among California runners at Foot Locker Nationals

BOYS RACE

Boys start at the Foot Locker National Championships Dec. 9 at Morley Field. (Photos by Clark Kranz)

Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau was the only Cali boy returning to Foot Locker Nationals for a second consecutive year. Joaquin Martinez de Pinillos was the hometown favorite from nearby Cathedral Catholic High and supported by a large gathering of classmates, friends and family. But the top boy from the west was Collin Ullrich from Gait Liberty Ranch, the Sac-Joaquin Division 4 champion.

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Among the four California boys, all seniors, Ullrich state's only runner under 16 minutes in placing 17th, 37 seconds behind winner Dylan Jacobs.

Beaudoin-Rousseau of San Jose Bellarmine Prep and headed to Stanford, placed 21st in 16:01.10, .40 seconds ahead of Darius Riley of Rancho Cucamonga.

Collin Ullrich was the top finisher among boys from California at the Foot Locker Nationals. (Clark Kranz)

Ullrich, the CIF-State Division 4 runner-up, appreciated the opportunity.

"This is probably one of the best experiences of my life," he said. "Getting to race the best people in the country is an amazing experience.

"The race was not all that I had hoped it to be. I had not gone to a meet where I had established myself as a top-10 in the nation or top 15; I was hoping to do that.

"I went out with the top people and we came through in 4:56 and I was feeling really good. And then the hill just kind of hit me. I fell back a little more than I wanted to but overall it was a great time."

Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau was a two-time qualifier for the Foot Locker Nationals. (Clark Kranz)

Beaudoin-Rousseau was 19th at FL Nationals as a junior. He is a two-time CIF-Central Section Division 1 champion who was fifth at CIF-State. 

"Definitely not my best race this season," Beaudoin-Rousseau said. "My legs felt kind of heavy throughout the race. But I guess it's OK. I'm really happy that I've been able to come here two years in a row. It's really a privilege to be able to run at such a competitive meet two times. I guess bad races happen. That's all right, it's been a long season."

Darius Riley was fourth among runners from the West Region at Saturday's race. (Clark Kranz)

Riley was sixth in the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 final, 12th at CIF-State and ninth at the Foot Locker West Regional.

"I executed my game plan," he said. "I didn't quite get the goal of where I wanted to finish in the race but I think scoring for the West was a big thing for me."

He said the plan was to stay with the upper third of the field for the first mile "which I was able to do comfortably." He said he knew the second time around to the hill is where he wanted to push. 

"But after the first downhill, things started not responding. Everyone (in the crowd) pushing me helped me finish the race ... but I rolled my ankle at the beginning of the second loop, which kind of mentally hurt."

Martinez de Pinillos, headed to Wake Forest, is the San Diego Section Division 3 champion, who was second at CIF-State D3 and won the D3 race at Mt. SAC.

"It's a real blessing to be here," he said. "Obviously, I wanted to do better but I don't think rankings matter. I'm going to look at the rankings and go, 'Whatever!' Ya know? I've still got track. I've still got college, so all I can do from here is just look up."