IRVINE | The opening day races of the two-day Woodbridge Classic, presented by ASICS America, typically serve as an appetizer for Saturday's entree, also known as the highlighted sweepstakes and rated races with a number of elite runners and teams taking apart the flat and fast Great Park course.
That's all well and good, but with there being a new three-mile course layout with a new starting area and some runners indicating they may have gone into their kick a little too soon late in the race, those competing in the "appetizer" phase of the meet provided a bevy of surprising and still satisfying results.
In the White Division Varsity A boys race, Menlo High senior Landon Pretre's blistering 14:16.7 time won the individual portion and his teammates followed suit, garnering three runners in the top 10 and all five among the top 13 places - all finishing sub-15-minutes - to win the team title. William Hauser finished third (14:27.2), Jared Saal was sixth (14:43.3), Henry Hauser 11th (14:49.5) and Oliver Olbekson was 13th (14:57.3).
"We always love coming here. It's a fast course so you can have some fun with it," Pretre said. "And all of us went out and raced for the team. We only had five guys in this race so it was every person counts for everything. It was a super performance and I'm proud of our guys."
The White Division's Varsity B boys race went the opposite way as Arizona's American Leadership senior David Soria won the individual title in 14:49.4, but Palos Verdes, backed by runner-up Adrian Miller's 14:54.8, placed all five of its runners among the top 35 places to win the team title.
Soria, who said he runs mostly 5,000-meter distances, won on the slightly shorter course by learning and adjusting as he went.
"I went out a lot slower than normal, most of the time I go 4:55 and I just die, but today I went out 5:05 exact and hit a sub-10 on the second mile," he said. "Coming around the stretch, I thought it was the finish line just around one turn but there was still a whole field. I started my kick way too early."
The boys Red Division Varsity B race was paced by another sub-15 performance, this time by San Pedro senior Evan Hadeishi. He won in 14:55.8. The winning team, however, was Santa Monica on the strength of five runners finishing among the first 31 places. Santa Monica had two top 10 finishers, sophomore Kingsley Lin (third, 15:03.8) and senior Landon Kozmor (ninth, 15:12.6). Hadeishi was one of three San Pedro runners in the top 15 -- the others were fellow seniors Christopher Frelix (fifth, 15:07.2) and Jack Butterfield (15th, 15:21.2).
On the girls side, the fastest female runner's time of the day was delivered by senior Ally Wheeler of Natrona County in Casper, Wyoming. Her 16:58.2 won the Red Division Varsity A race and a ninth-place finish by senior teammate Ashley Gross (18:21.2) helped Natrona Valley secure the team title.
"Being from Wyoming and never racing at sea level before, this was going to be something totally new as I've never run in a race with more than 50 people," Wheeler said. "It was a little crazy but I definitely surprised myself. I thought the start was the smoothest I've ever had. It's 100 meters wide so it gave us a lot of room to get in position."
Wheeler was in a group with two other leading runners up to the first mile and she passed them, leading to her first-ever sub-17-minute time.
Another winning time, a 17:17.4 turned in by Brentwood sophomore Amelia Sarkisian, earned her the White Division Varsity A race. She finished more than a minute ahead of the race's runner-up. In the team category, Big Bear finished first on the strength of a pair of top 10 finishers. Sophomore Maddie Caughey was third in 18:22.4 and Telina Chicca, a junior, was ninth in 18:42.4.
Remaining top individual girls performances Friday were turned in by Giselle Fernandez, a junior from Riverbank, who won the White Division Varsity B race in 17:27.8; Gwendolyn LeVander of American Leadership who took the White Division freshman title in 17:30; and Downey senior Natalie Gonzalez who won the Red Division Varsity B race in 17:30.1.
Notable times among boys on Friday included low-15 times by Kalel Brubaker of Natrona Valley, WY, 15:00 in winning the Red Varsity A race; Josef Iker from Chandler (AZ) Preparatory Academy going 15:02 to take the White Division Senior race; and Roland Balderas of Santee EC claiming the Red Division Senior race in 15:05.4.
Woodbridge Classic resumes on Saturday with the opening races, the boys and girls novice divisions, going at 3:50 p.m. and 4:02 p.m., respectively. Gold and Blue division races in both grade level and varsity-only racing follow. The 27-race schedule will conclude with varsity boys and girls rated races at 8:54 p.m. and 9:14 p.m. and the Bob Day Girls Sweepstakes race at 9:34 p.m. and Doug Speck Boys Sweepstakes race at 9:54 p.m.