Cross Country Races in Clovis Invitationals

The cross country team raced in the Clovis Invitational at Woodward Park in Fresno, California, Saturday, October 6. The team placed 11th for boys varsity and 22nd for girls varsity, with all participants running a 5K.

Junior Terence Rabuzzi led the team with 19th place, followed by senior Josh Cohen (31st), freshman Ben Zaeske (70th), junior Konrad Niemiec (82nd) and senior John Beutter (144th). Terence placed first among the Eagles, running the course in 16 minutes and 5 seconds.

Both Terence and Josh beat their previous race time by about 30 seconds, which is considered a huge improvement.

Freshman Lauren Jacob lead girls varsity with 31st place with a time of 19 minutes and 29 seconds. Junior Wendy Wu (113th), sophomore Anneliese Gallagher (115th), junior Elizabeth Bishop (134th) and sophomore Kristen Adams (141st) followed behind.

“I was very happy with my time and place,” Lauren said. “I wasn’t feeling very well beforehand, but during the race I felt great!”

Thankfully, the heat wave that struck earlier this week had passed by race day, and the team wasn’t too run down by excessively hot temperatures. Instead, runners had to overcome the dustiness of the course as almost 300 pairs of feet kicked up the loose dirt that covered the course.

“The dust kept getting into my mouth which made it really dry,” junior Tim Scott said.

The team will next run on Tuesday, October 9, in the SCVAL Intro at Crystal Springs.