The College of the Redwoods men’s cross country team is headed to the state championships for the first time in 11 years.
Over the weekend, Redwoods placed eighth at the NorCal Championships to qualify for the big season-ending meet, which will take place in Fresno next week.
“It was a great day,” CR head coach Reed Elmore said. “It’s been a while and it’s nice to come back and compete on a statewide level as a team.”
Dylan Rodriguez of Del Norte led the way for the team over the weekend and placed 17th overall, finishing the four-mile course in a time of 21 minutes, 23 seconds.
Next best was Gavin Falleri, who placed 35th with a time of 22:02, while Che Jimenez finished strong and passed eight runners over the last mile to place 46th.
Jimenez was followed by Levi Browne in 49th and Santino Thomas in 58th.
Rounding out the team performance were Redsky.Waheneka in 64th and Phoenix Davis in 66h.
As a team, CR scored 201 points and was just 13 points out of a top-five finish.
The CR women’s team, which was hampered by injuries, placed ninth but missed out on advancing to Fresno.
But it was a strong showing for the team’s top three runners, who all posted PRs, led by Madison Ruiz, who was 40th and finished the three-mile run in a time of 19:50.
Brida Lester was just two spots farther back, finishing in a time of 19:53, followed by Rathlin Hemmingsen in 52nd in a time of 20:37.
Zakayla Robinson was the next fastest CR runner in 61st (22:14), followed by Candace Cohoon in 64th in a time of 24:31.
“The woman ran well, but we were flagged by injuries with two of our athletes,” Elmore said. “The times were impressive for the first three runners, especially when compared to their high school times, so we’re excited for next year.”
