Freshman Gavin Falleri led the way for College of the Redwoods over the weekend, as the men’s cross country team placed an impressive second at the Pat Ryan Invitational at Spring Lake Park.
The Ukiah runner placed third overall, finishing the four-mile course in a time of 22 minutes 42 seconds.
Modesto had the top two runners and took the team win with 36 points, with Redwoods scoring 42 points and comfortably beating Santa Rosa JC (76) for second.
Redwoods competed without impressive freshman Dylan Rodriguez who paced the team in Redding the previous weekend. showcasing the depth on this year’s roster.
CR had four runners place in the top 10 at the six-team meet, including Santino Thomas, who has shown significant improvement this year as a sophomore and finished seventh on Friday in a time of 23:23.2.
Sophomores Levi Brown, who placed ninth, and Chase Jimenez, who finished 10th, also impressed for CR, as did freshman RedSky Waheneka in 13th and sophomore Phoenix Davis in 15th.
Sean Morris rounded out an impressive team performance in 17th.
“It’s a good day when your seventh guy finishes 17th out of 43 starters,” CR head coach Reed Elmore said. “The guys are consistently changing in terms of finishing order.”
And with the depth on this year’s team a trip to state meet looks very achievable for the local community college program.
“If we can put it all together at the (conference) championships we could pull an upset” Elmore added. “If we can put it all together at NorCal Championships we could make state.”
Four CR women competed on Friday, including Fortuna’s Madison Ruiz, who led the team with a 12th-place finish.
Ruiz, a freshman, finished the 5K course in a time of 21:30.1, with another Fortuna runner, Brida Lester, placing two spots further back in 14th in a time of 21:56.5.
Eureka’s Rathlin Hemmingsen, who is coming off an injury, was next best for CR in 18th, followed by Candace Cohoon in 23rd.
“The girls team is flirting with breakthroughs,” Elmore said. “Their training is going well, but they just have to know that they can run fast and they will.”
