Girls 1600 / Mile (4:00 pm / 7:35 pm)
Meet Record: Riley Bowen, Sonoma Academy (2016) 4:48.18/4:49.83Break into Top 10: 4:51.89
The top athletes that want to double back up for the 800 or 3200 have the option to either compete in a late afternoon 1600 meters, or they may simply focus only on the mile, which will be held under the lights at 7:35 pm. Leading the charge in that afternoon 1600 will be Great Oak junior Fatima Cortes. Cortes has transformed herself into an elite prep after two years of steadily improving herself and then erupting to the Div. I Southern Section title in this past cross country season. Entering the season with a 5:12 to her name, she is now a sub-4:50 competitor. She rolled to a sub-69 second last lap to run away with the victory at the California Winter Championships (she also finished with a sub-71 in her 3000m victory).
Her teammate and training partner, sophomore Tori Gaitan, has improved as well as she has already gone under 4:59 and is coming off a confidence-building 10:34 victory last weekend. Ayala junior Mikaela Ramirez will be right there pushing these two as she has already inked 2:16/5:01/10:35 resume this past month. Both Oak Park's Sarah Shulze and Sylvia Cruz-Albrecht come in with personal bests of 4:59 while Great Oak sophomore Arianna Griffiths has put injuries from her freshman year behind her and ran under 4:59 in a dual meet several weeks ago. The veteran of this 1600 race is Walnut junior Chloe Arriaga. She took fourth at last year's Southern Section Masters Meet in 4:52 en route to the state championships and was also the CIF Division I XC Champ in 2015 and 2016.
The ladies will run the full mile in our Invitational section. Our main headliner is no other than Capistrano Valley senior Haley Herberg (Ben Crawford photo above). Looking to climb up those charts on the Orange County all-time lists, Herberg is fresh off a 4:55 solo effort last weekend (No. 3 in California). Her 4:49.92 from last year places her as the 13th-fastest returner for this event in the nation and No. 2 in California. She was third here at the Meet of Champions for the mile last year in 4:55. Herberg is also the current national leader for the 3200 meters (10:23.17) but hasn't been pushed whatsoever in her both elite efforts the past two weeks.
Meanwhile, coming to us with a 4:56.01 personal best, El Toro's Ashley Messineo has played it low thus far while opening up her season with a 5:01 two weeks ago. She took eighth place at the 2017 Southern Section Masters Meet, just missing the state meet. Leading Buchanan (Fresno) to an at-large berth to NXN, junior Meagen Lowe and sophomore Corie Smith rolled to 4:56 personal bests in 2017. Both qualified for the California state championships in 2017 while Smith took seventh place in the state meet 3200 and was the top freshman (10:28.00) in the state for that event. Smith roared to the Division I state title this past Fall and an impressive 21st place finish at NXN.
Elena Kamas of Homestead has a best of 5:00.23 for the full mile and is coming off a 5:08 last weekend. From the San Diego section is Lexi Watkins of La Jolla Country Day. Her 4:59 effort last year yielded her a trip to the California state meet. With such a talented field where everybody has gone under 5:05, our wildcard is the freshman from Village Christian. Mia Barnett impressed at the Winter Championships (4:38.9 for the 1500) while she threw down a 2:16/ 10:52 last weekend as a primer for this race. Between the two elite sections of the 1600/mile, there are 23 girls coming in with sub-5:05 personal bests.