2016 Brooks Mt. SAC XC Invitational

Mt. SAC XC Super Sweepstakes Preview

Mt. SAC XC Super Sweepstakes Preview

Full preview of all of the Mt. SAC XC Invitational sweepstakes races.

Oct 19, 2016 by Johanna Gretschel
Mt. SAC XC Super Sweepstakes Preview
Before you watch Mt. SAC live, get the scoop on all of the sweepstakes races.

Girls D1 & D2 Team Sweepstakes


When: Saturday, 12:29 PM ET
Saucony Flo50 Teams: US #4, CA #1 Great Oak, US #5, CA #2 Davis, US #13, CA #3 Arcadia, CA #4 Claremont, CA #5 Palos Verdes, CA #7 Saugus, CA #13 Capistrano Valley, CA #14 Vista Murrieta, CA #16 San Ramon Valley, CA #17 Monte Vista, CA #18 Homestead, CA #19 Granada, CA #22 Westview
Saucony Flo50 Individuals: CA #6 Mariah Castillo (Saugus), CA #9 Haley Herberg (Capistrano Valley), CA #10 Meredith Corda (Monte Vista), CA #16 Sofia Castiglioni (Davis), CA #18 Elena Kamas (Homestead), CA #22 Evelyn Mandel (Great Oak), CA #24 Kinga Bihari (Granada)

The Girls D1 and D2 Team Sweepstakes race marks Round 3 for the state's top-ranked programs: Great Oak, Davis, and Arcadia. The three powers met earlier this season at Stanford and Clovis, where they ran to their predicting pecking order. The most recent battle at Clovis saw the Wolfpack score 81 points for the win and record a 26-second top-five spread and a 18:05 5K average. Davis scored 114 points (34-second spread, 18:15 5K average) for second, while Arcadia scored 143 points (25-second spread, 18:22 5K average) for third. But Claremont was much closer to Arcadia than expected--six points away, 149 points total--for fourth place there, which improved its stock after a tough fourth-place showing at the challenging Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota during the Stanford weekend. Arcadia won't be at full strength due to the SAT, though.

Back at home on Mt. SAC's net downhill course, can Claremont continue to close the gap? A total of 12 ranked teams will push the pace to in an effort to rewrite the rankings on Saturday morning.

In the individual battle, the state's No. 6 ranked runner Mariah Castillo gets her first true test of the year. No. 19 Haley Herberg of Capistrano Valley is on a roll lately. Since placing seventh in the Woodbridge Sweepstakes in 16:45, she won the Dana Hills Invitational and captured the Orange County Championship title in 17:01.

Watch Great Oak win the D1/D2 Team Sweepstakes in 2015:


Boys D1 & D2 Team Sweepstakes 


When: Saturday, 12:16 PM ET
Saucony Flo50 Teams: US #5, CA #1 Great Oak, US #10, CA #2 Claremont, CA #4 West Ranch, CA #5 Loyola, CA #6 Eleanor Roosevelt, CA #7 Bellarmine, CA #8 Burroughs, CA #11 Arcadia, CA #15 Granada, CA #19 Palisades Charter, CA #20 Mira Costa, CA #23 Trabuco Hills, CA #24 El Toro
Saucony Flo50 Individuals: CA #15 Raymon Ornelas (Roosevelt), CA #16 Charles Sherman (Loyola), CA #18 Jacob Korgan (Great Oak), CA #24 Alexander Hirsch (Burroughs)

Nationally ranked Great Oak and Claremont headline a loaded field of 13 of the top-ranked teams in California.

Great Oak looks much different in 2016 after graduating six of seven varsity runners, but the Wolfpack seems poised to conquer the Sweepstakes field again after rolling to an impressive victory at ASICS Clovis with 57 points and a tight 17-second spread and 15:41 5K average. Top runner Jacob Korgan could challenge for the individual title.

Claremont was No. 2 at Clovis with 105 points ahead of Dana Hills, who will not race here. Earlier this season, Claremont proved it can run hills with a runner-up team placement on a challenging Roy Griak course in Minnesota behind U.S. No. 7-ranked Wayzata.

Can Claremont close the gap to Great Oak in round two?

Watch Great Oak win the D1/D2 Team Sweepstakes in 2015:


Girls D1 & D2 Individual Sweepstakes


When: Saturday, 11:58 AM ET
Saucony Flo50 Individuals: US #21, CA #1 Claudia Lane, CA #2 Chloe Arriaga (Walnut), CA #3 Claire Graves (Citrus Valley), CA #5 Emily Virtue (Burroughs), CA #8 Glennis Murphy (Redwood), CA #20 Akemi Von Scherr (La Quinta)
Challengers: Kira Loren (Canyon Crest Academy), Hannah Tobin (El Toro), Elizabeth Chittenden (Mira Costa), Emma Arriaga (Walnut)

Seven of the top 25-ranked runners in California (view full CA Flo50 here) will match up for the individual sweepstakes on Saturday morning.

Malibu High School sophomore Claudia Lane, the No. 21 ranked runner in the nation and No. 1 in the state, headlines the field. She has dropped her times by huge margins this fall. Her breakout race was a 16:25 effort at the Seaside Invitational that was a nearly three-minute improvement from her 2015 mark. Lane also recorded a sub-17 in her most recent run, a 16:58.6 tempo effort to win the TCAA Cluster #2 by 2:06. 

Her biggest test this season came at the Woodbridge XC Classic, where she took runner-up honors to No. 1-ranked Brie Oakley, 15:53 to 16:16. With that effort, Lane defeated Julia Heymach (then No. 18) and ran faster than Allie Schadler in a separate race (then No. 11).

Walnut sophomore Chloe Arriaga was fourth at the Woodbridge Sweepstakes in 16:33. 

Lane and Arriaga will have three Foot Locker Nationals finalists to contend with: Claire Graves (29th in 2014), Emily Virtue (38th in 2015), and Glennis Murphy (21st in 2015).

Murphy was seventh at Stanford and improved to third at Clovis, while Virtue hasn't seen much competition just yet. Graves recorded an impressive 16:56 three mile at the Great Cow Run but fell to upstart freshman Akemi Von Scherr at the Central Park Invitational, 17:24 to 17:58.

Von Scherr was the fastest California freshman in the Woodbridge Sweepstakes, where she ran 16:54.4 for 17th. 


WATCH LIVE


Boys D1 & D2 Individual Sweepstakes


When: Saturday, 11:45 AM ET
Saucony Flo50 Individuals: US #16, CA #5 Callum Bolger (San Luis Obispo), CA #10 Christian Ricketts (Arroyo Grande), CA #17 Colin Fitzgerald (Crescenta Valley), #25 Ethan Comeaux (Redondo Union)
Challengers: Dillon Beckum (Bonita), Justin Hazell (El Camino Real), Abraham Coco Gonzales (Katella)

Four of the top-ranked boys runners in California (view full Flo50 here) will race for the individual sweepstakes title, led by nationally ranked Callum Bolger (pictured above) who rates No. 16 in the nation and No. 5 in the state. 

Bolger has already gained big-league racing experience this fall; he took third at Clovis behind Luis Grijalva and Michael Vernau and third behind Cooper Teare and Vernau at Stanford with a new 5K PR of 14:54.4.

Christian Ricketts outran Bolger at the Pac 8 League Preview, 15:24 to 15:41. Ricketts won the D1 Varsity race at Clovis in 15:15, ahead of Ethan Comeaux and Justin Hazell, who will also race here. Ricketts' Clovis time stood as the sixth-fastest of the day when combined with times from the championship race.

Comeaux's 15:30 runner-up finish at Clovis was a new 5K PR for him, as was his 14:41.6 run at Woodbridge for runner-up honors in the rated race. He was seventh at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota.

Crescenta Valley junior Colin Fitzgerald was seventh in the championship section at Clovis in a new 5K PR 15:24 and followed that up with a new three-mile PR of 14:41.3 to win the Pacific League Cluster #2.

Boys D5 Sweepstakes


When: Friday, 8:29 PM ET
Saucony Flo50 Individuals: US #6 Cooper Teare (St. Joseph Notre Dame)

Like Claudia Lane in the D4 Sweepstakes, Cooper Teare has the potential to produce the fastest boys time of the weekend in Friday night's D5 Sweepstakes. The California state 3200m champion was runner-up in this division last year in 14:48 to Jack Van Scoter (now of Georgetown), which stood as the seventh-fastest time of the entire meet. The fastest overall time in 2015 was 14:24 by Phillip Rocha, though Austin Tamagno ran the fastest time on Friday (14:36) in the early evening's much warmer conditions.

Teare is much improved--the senior ranks No. 6 on the Saucony Flo50 and ran 13:59 for runner-up honors at the Woodbridge Sweepstakes. He could potentially lead St. Joseph Notre Dame to the team title in this division, as it graduates just one runner from a squad that placed third last year.


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