RECAP San Clemente Boys' Latest Triumph: Mt. SAC Sweepstakes

* * *

WALNUT -- The San Clemente High School boys cross-country team's goal is the same as it is for everyone: Keep getting better.

Sounds simple, right? 

The Tritons are doing just that, getting better by showing up at the big meets, running in team sweepstakes races, and going for it -- competing with other great teams around the state, surpassing some of them, seeking consistency and to improve the split time between its first and fifth runner. 

On Saturday, as it has been been since September, Head Coach Dan Johnson's runners have grasped expectations and are following the plan to near perfection. Near perfection? Yeah, it's still October and Johnson, nor his runners, are resting on their laurels. The work they put in now hopefully pays dividends in November postseason meets.

The latest part of the plan was to run the Division 1-2 Boys Team Sweepstakes race in the Mt. San Antonio College XC Invitational on Saturday. The result was a second straight championship finish after winning the Orange County Championships. 

Mt. SAC, the legendary three-hill and tough overall course, brought out some powerful glimpses of San Clemente's team talent. Although Crescenta Valley's Parker Simmons (pictured below) won the individual title in 14:46, senior Juan Chantaca's runner-up finish in 14:55 (pictured above), the packing of junior Brett Ephraim and senior Rory Catsimanes, fifth and sixth at 15:03, and juniors Pierce Clark and Taj Clark rounding out the Tritons' top five, 13th (15:22) and 18th (15:30), respectively, gave San Clemente a good feeling for what's possible in Division I Southern Section races at Mt. SAC.

"We came here as a team, looking to envision winning, and hold that strong line from first to fifth man (it was a season-best 35 seconds Saturday). We're stoked to be where we are now, and the potential we have to go for it," Chantaca says. "There were a lot of fast runners today. I have a lot of respect for them, especially Parker Simmons. He really pushed it the last bit as I tried to keep up with him. I thought we had a great race."

San Clemente Coach Dan Johnson agreed.

"The kids ran super well and pretty much did everything we asked of them," Johnson said. "\We've been running the flat courses all year and Mt. SAC is a whole different animal. All of our kids have run the course before but you can never run it too much. There are little things, little tweaks here and there you can always get better at. Our goal was run the course, get used to it with some top contenders, and with the idea we're going to be back here in a couple of weeks for prelims, hopefully, CIF finals and move on from there." 

San Clemente, which repeated as Orange County Championships' sweepstakes winners at Silverado's Oak Canyon Park, expanded their winning ways beyond the county with the team victory at Mt. SAC. On Saturday, San Clemente topped Great Oak (SS), Crescenta Valley (SS), Mira Costa (SS), and out-of-state entrant Highland of Arizona.

"I think we gained a lot of confidence, especially me, Brett, and Juan," Catsimanes says. "Brett and I ran together the whole race and that was really reassuring we could do that and Juan can go ahead and pick off some of the frontrunners. Today was a stepping stone that we can hopefully transfer to Southern Section finals and to State."

San Clemente's plan isn't much different when trying to map out a plan. Teams look to certain invitationals as opportunities to see how they measure up with other strong teams and run on particular courses to see how they fare.

San Clemente, which finished fifth in Division 1 Southern Section finals and fourth in the CIF-State Division I meet in 2021, is compiling a solid resume during the 2022 season.

At mid-September's Woodbridge Invitational sweepstakes on Irvine's Great Park's flat, fast course, the Tritons had an eighth-place team finish. The top trio shined with sub-15s from Chantaca (14:31), Ephraim (14:40.9), and Catsimanes (14:41.7). The top schools were from out-of-state, but among California teams were Granada (NC) and Great Oak in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

On October 8, San Clemente trekked to Fresno's Woodward Park, home of the CIF State Championship Meet, to vie in the Clovis Invitational championship flight. San Clemente took second behind the state's top team, Newbury Park (SS), but finished ahead of Granada (NC), Great Oak (pictured below), Crescenta Valley, San Luis Obispo (CS) and meet host Clovis (CS). Chantaca, Ephraim, Catsimanes and Pierce Clark each finished sub-16 and the team's 1-5 split was 52 seconds. 

Then came the Orange County Championships win, topping a sweepstakes field (in order) consisting of Trabuco Hills, Tesoro, El Toro and Dana Hills. Chantaca won the race in a personal-best time of 14:26.40, Ephraim was third in 14:28.40 and Catsimanes was fourth in 14:29.7. The team's 1-5 split was 38 seconds.

Add in Saturday's Mt. SAC win and San Clemente's Johnson knows exactly what's happening as the schedule turns to league finals and CIF races. 

"We are approaching every week as though we have a target on our backs now," he says. "About a month ago, I brought our kids together when we were starting to get some publicity. I told our guys, 'You're not Newbury Park yet and you're not Great Oak yet. That's how it is. You're going to get there if you keep doing what you are doing. Our kids aren't going to get big-headed or anything like that. They are very focused."

How does one know this? The post-Mt. SAC race schedule Saturday for San Clemente was an eight-mile "cool down" run.

"It was kind of a workout, we wanted to put in a solid showing on the (Mt. SAC) course and then cool down with a good eight miles," Catsimanes says. "It sets us up for the rest of the races coming up as we get ready to drop our mileage a little bit. It was a good last solid workout for the season."

Ephraim states it succinctly: "We all want to get better and we'll do what it takes to advance."

The Royal (SS) duo of seniors Jonah Bazerkanian (15:00) and Noah De La Rionda (15:01) placed right behind Parker and Chantaca with Great Oak junior Gabriel Rodriguez (15:08) rolling in right after Catsimanes and Ephraim. Senior Mark Cortes placed ninth (15:08) for Great Oak, just being Mira Costa (SS) senior Andrew Martin (15:08). 

In the Boys Division 1-2 Individual Sweeps, junior Omar Reyes of El Camino (SD) pulled ahead late to win in 14:49 with Millikan (SS) junior Jason Parra next in 14:54, just ahead of Moore League rival Cameron Rhone of Long Beach Poly (14:58). Rhone, a senior, led Poly to the team title just ahead of Loyola (SS), which was led by senior Jake Ratkovich, who placed fifth in 15:05, just behind Westlake (SS) senior KC Barber (15:02) and a couple of strides in front of De La Salle (NC) sophomore Trey Caldwell (15:08).