It was easy to feel the momentum of high school sports returning at Wilson High on Wednesday afternoon, as the Bruins hosted Poly in a Moore League cross country dual meet. There were fans in the stands, cheerleaders, and excitement from athletes on both ends of the field.
Poly swept both boys’ and girls’ varsity team races, while Wilson’s Nico Colchico and Poly’s Camille Lindsay were the first-place finishers in the races.
“It’s pretty interesting running where I go to school, especially since we aren’t allowed to go to school right now,” said Colchico, who finished the three-mile course in 15:44 to best Poly’s Cameron Rhone by four seconds. “It means a lot for us to get to be out here, though, it was great.”
Poly took care of business in the team race with seven of the top nine finishers to secure the win, setting up a league championship showdown with Millikan in two Wednesdays. Rhone was followed by Luke Larson in third, Wilson’s Jack Wade in fourth, then a Poly string of Nick Mejia, Brandon Perry, Kyle Johnson, Jaedon Rufo, and Mason Lindsay. ALl seven Poly runners finished within 40 seconds of each other.
“From all of our workouts we knew our spread was going to be really tight,” said Poly boys’ coach Cameron Ford. “That’s an advantage and especially on the new campus courses.”
In the girls’ race, it was the Camille Lindsay show as expected, as the sophomore blazed to an 18:16 time, 1:22 faster than her closest competitor, teammate Maile Quinn.
It was Poly’s first competitive race of the season after a time trial last week.
“After last week we said we wanted to push each other today, and we did,” said Lindsay. “We’re excited and we’re ready.”
Lindsay and Quinn were followed by Wilson’s Sofia Alvarado, but Poly had the next five finishers with Alexa Bryson, Evelyn Lujan-Hernandez, Ailene Rios, Sasha Johnson, and Danika Hunter.
“The girls were so hyped,” said Poly coach Gabrielle Bournes. “I expected them to be ready. They’ve been training since June without an end goal in sight and then finally there’s a real meet and a real race on the schedule. You can just see how happy they all are and how happy I am and how happy everyone is to be out here.”
Boys Varsity
1- Nico Colchico (Wilson, 15:44)
2- Cameron Rhone (Poly, 15:48)
3- Luke Larson (Poly, 15:50)
4- Jack Wade (Wilson, 15:54)
5- Nick Mejia (Poly, 16:09)
6- Brandon Perry (Poly, 16:11)
7- Kyle Johnson (Poly, 16:20)
8- Jaedon Rufo (Poly, 16:21)
9- Mason Lindsay (Poly, 16:23)
10- Guillermo Aguirre (Wilson, 16:24)
11- Cameron Thompson (Wilson, 16:50)
12- Diego Alvarado (Wilson, 17:08)
13- Riki Moscoco (Wilson, 18:07)
14- Miguel G. (Wilson, 18:16)
Girls Varsity
1- Camille Lindsay (Poly, 18:16)
2- Maile Quinn (Poly, 19:38)
3- Sofia Alvarado (Wilson, 19:52)
4- Alexa Bryson (Poly, 20:06)
5- Evelyn Lujan-Hernandez (Poly, 20:06)
6- Ailene Rios (Poly, 20:17)
7- Sasha Johnson (Poly, 20:22)
8- Danika Hunter (Poly, 20:32)
9- Natalie Maans (Wilson, 20:34)
10- Chloe Brodsky (Wilson, 21:28)
11- Amber Shanks (Wilson, 21:51)
12- Maddy Diaz (Wilson, 22:01)
13- Berlin Gutenkauf (Wilson, 22:43)
