Submitted photo – The CR women’s team.

The College of the Redwoods women’s cross country team will carry some momentum into this weekend’s Northern California Championships as the Corsairs look to qualify for the 2024 state championships.

Despite missing one of their top runners at last week’s Golden Valley Conference championships, the CR women turned in a strong showing and placed second as a team to Butte College.

Former Eureka Logger Anna Grimmett paced the Corsairs and finished fourth overall, crossing the finish line of the three-mile course in a time of 20 minutes, 19.47 seconds.

The performance broke her previous PR by over a minute.

“Although we got second, this was a huge win for us in terms of development,” head coach Reed Elmore said. “Everyone had their personal goals (for the meet), not just in terms of time, and they achieved that.”

The Corsairs competed without their second best runner, Josephine Kent, who missed the meet after suffering a sprained ankle but is hoping to be healthy in time for this weekend’s big race.

In her absence, several of teammates stepped up with PRs.

Fortuna’s Gabby Crosswhite also impressed for the CR women and placed 10th in a time of 22:37, with teammate Violetta Gutierrez one spot further back and finished in a time of 23:26.6.

CR’s Angelica Weston placed 15th (25:41.2) and Carolina Perez was 16th (31:02.1).

All five CR women posted career best times.

Crosswhite has been slowed this fall because of illness but appears to be peaking again at an opportune time.

“It was great to see her have a good race and start to come around and actually enjoy running again,” Elmore said.  

Weston, a former South Fork Cub, smashed her previous PR by close to three minutes and has knocked off 10 minutes from her fastest time a year ago, while Perez beat her previous PR by a remarkable five minutes.

Submitted photo

In the men’s race, former McKinleyville Panther Aidan Davis paced CR and finished 19th overall in a time of 24:50.0 over the four-mile course, while Luke Kamrud was 21st (27:21.4), Uriel Esteves was 25th (31:09.6) and AJ Perez from Hoopa was 28th (40:25.3).

Davis finished one spot out of the NorCal qualifying.

“This is disappointing for him, but he had some good races this season,” Elmore said of Davis. “We’re looking forward to what he will do on the track (in the spring) and for us next year in cross country.”

Elmore and the CR women will now turn their attention to this week’s NorCal championships.

“The whole women’s team has qualified and we have an outside shot at making it to state, especially if Josephine is healthy,” the CR coach said. “Whether or not we make it, this team has been a joy to coach and it’s showing great improvement and has moved the program forward for next year.”