NORCO -- The 2019 edition of the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic is looking as if it could be its most competitive yet when the massive two-day event takes off Friday afternoon.
In what we coined as the 'Norco Speedway' a year ago, the event will be held once again at the SilverLakes Sports Complex just off the I-15 in northwest Riverside County. This year's spectacle will feature many of California's best programs along with representatives from 15 other states, including several nationally ranked squads.
A course that many continue to question its length, it has been consistently measured at three miles and confirmed by meet director (and creator), George Varvas on multiple occasions. (So, enough with the theories that the course is short, thus accounting for such fast times!)
With the meet entering its 39th year of existence, Varvas brought the event 'under the lights' over 10 years ago on the Woodbridge High School campus in believing the sport deserves as much attention as those contested at night. That vision became reality and now can boast as being one of the most competitive (and fastest!) in the United States.
What helps make Woodbridge so fast?
- Evening temperatures dipping into the high 60s make for ideal conditions when the sweepstakes races take the line after 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night.
- The energy of a huge crowd that lines nearly every stretch of the course, which is primarily run on the manicured turf of soccer fields.
- Mix some of California's best talent with standout runners from more than a dozen states, put them under the lights, and the result is the fastest three-mile meet in the country.
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Photos by Frank Bellino and Patrick Corsinita