DANA HILLS
Fast, fast, fast times
Want a fast time? Run at Dana Hills.
This invitational almost annually leads the way in masses of glitzy times.
There is always good competition, but the course is the most valuable player here. It's no longer than 3.0 miles, with no major hills, is run mostly on a very fast surface, and the finish line is at a lower elevation than the start. It all adds up to fast times for all comers.
That being said, some of the efforts by San Diego runners there this year were still impressive. Helix senior Courtney Baird won the junior/senior large schools race, in 16:52. Yes, it's a fast course, but 16:52 under any conditions is excellent.
By the same token, Ramona's Matt McInvale won the boys large schools junior race in 14:43, and he "shut down" over the last part of the race, according to a rival coach. Ramona coach Dave Wilson confirmed that his athlete was under instructions to keep something in reserve.
McInvale still won the race by
0:27 seconds over Vista's Justin Neuroth.
Best team efforts from local runners were by the Mt. Carmel girls, and the Vista boys. Mt. Carmel had a lineup led by Karen Vasko (17:57), Ashley Dere (18:16), and Janet Mulvey (18:30), and they had four others under 20 minutes.
The Vista boys had four runners in the 15-minute range, including Neuroth (15:10), Ryan Montez (15:23 in winning the soph race), Jared Emmons (15:26), and Sean Daley (15:40). Next best girls team was Helix, led by Baird, although they were missing a couple of key performers.
Poway and Scripps Ranch also had excellent boys team efforts.Poway featured Josh Pope (15:24), Pat Prunty (15:49) and Devin Lyons-Quirk (15:54). The Scripps group had Raphael Machado (15:23) and Patrick Grimes (15:31).
Other noteworthy individual performers included Chula Vista's Michael Manzano (15:29), RBV's Nick Thornton (15:59) and Mt. Carmel freshman Alan Aradanas (15:59) in boys races; and University's Michelle Barrack (18:17), Chula Vista's Mythili Duvvuri (18:37) and RBV frosh runners Natassja Hall (18:45) and Courtney Allen (18:48) in girls racing.
The Results:
At Dana Hills High School, Saturday, September 26. Course
is relatively flat, and very fast. Teams were divided into divisions based on size, and
races were divided into grade levels.
| BOYS (3.0 miles): Fastest San Diego-area runners, from all races: 14:43
Matt McInvale, Ramona TEAM TIMES: NOTE: Some schools did not report times for five runners. 77:50 Vista |
GIRLS (3.0 miles): Fastest San Diego-area runners, from all races: 16:52
Courtney Baird, Helix TEAM TIMES: NOTE: Some schools did not report times for five runners. 93:34 Mt. Carmel |