One of the most anticipated cross-country (XC) races of the fall season is the annual Mt. San Antonio College (SAC) XC invitational on October 25, which hosts over 450 high school teams across multiple divisions, cementing itself as one of the biggest meets in the country. Ayala’s XC was one of those teams.
Before an unexpected and certainly disparaging end to one of Ayala’s most sensational XC seasons due to a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) mishap, last season’s varsity boys finished ninth and the girls finished seventh in the individual sweepstakes that featured Mt. SAC. This excellent finish occurred under different circumstances than the team faces today. The most notable being the implementation of a completely new coaching staff after the loss of the previous coaches.
The first to depart was Tony Dimarco, with his 20-year coaching stint, who brought on multiple CIF state appearances. Dimarco’s resignation was followed by his assistant coaches, Ashlyn Bravo and Chris Chu, who were only on the staff for a couple of seasons. The coaching staff replacements that were brought on earlier this year were head coach Caroline Cobo, a Benedictine Track & Field alumna. The assistant coaches to accompany Cobo were Matthew Ullmann, a biology teacher at Ayala, and Jacob Villegas.
Ayala’s XC team thus brings a completely new look, but one question lingers: Will this change benefit their athletes’ performance?
“[Coach Cobo] told us that we trained for this, and to not overthink the race—just go into a deposit mindset and be ready to compete,” varsity runner Gustavo Gusman (10) said.
Cobo’s advice is appreciated by her runners, as Mt. SAC is known for its rigorous three-mile course that has a total ascent of over 540 feet. Mt. SAC’s course is known for its most notable hills, like Switchback, Valley Loop, and Reservoir Hill. The old course used to include another notorious hill called “Poop out Hill,” but has since been eliminated to shift the course to a faster feel.
“Honestly, I feel like hills are more of a mental than physical challenge to me, and I’m just gonna try to pursue and try hard,” runner Daniel Shan (10) said.
After the dedicated runners of Mt. SAC’s annual XC invitational surmounted the course’s testing hills to cross the long-awaited finish line, Ayala’s boys smashed last season’s prior expectations, where they finished first in the sweepstakes race with a score of 129. This surprise domination boils down to the exceptional performance of varsity runners Bryson Caganap (10) and Jack Paz (10). Caganap’s final time was 15:16.5, landing him in the fifth-place spot out of 130 total runners. Paz ended with a time of 15:24 for an eleventh-place finish.
For the girls in Ayala’s varsity race, their resiliency and belief in themselves earned them a second-place finish with a final score of 96. The team’s first place in the race belonged to Santa Monica High School by a difference of 12 points over Ayala. Kate Baik (9) was Ayala’s first finisher for the race with a final time of 19:07.6, sufficient for an impressive fifth-place.
“I think Ayala’s girls did really well at Mt. SAC, especially since a lot of girls got medals, which are only awarded to the top 15 of each race,” varsity runner Mandy Ma said.
These results show how greatly Ayala’s team has improved from this season’s initial weeks. One thing clear this season is Ayala’s immense discipline and improvement that has led them to where they are currently.
