BOYS
Covered by Staff Writer – Steven McKiernan
At Legion Park on September 11th, 2010, in Modesto, CA, Sierra Invitational held a cross country meet. It was only the third meet of the season, but the Pride was putting up exquisite times and places on the board. Leading the Frosh-Soph boys 2-mile race for Pitman were veteran sophomores Jorge Ulloa and Carlos Casas. Jorge got 31st place with a time of 11:54 out of 233 runners from 20 different schools. On the other hand, Carlos Casas finished with a time of 12:11 and 43rd place, an improvement of over two minutes faster than his last year’s time. The Frosh-Soph boys finished 6th place out of 20 schools there. Team captain, Frank Finch, of the Varsity Boys team finished 17th out of 208 runners from 11 different schools with a 3 mile time of 17:40. Other notables were junior Ricky Ketscher (18:26) and Senior Caleb Wittstruck (20:08). The Varsity Boys finished 5th; ahead of Turlock who finished 7th. Although this meet was only an invitational, we have seen remarkable times out of our runners and a huge team effort that can lead all three teams to CCC titles.
GIRLS
Covered by Staff Writer – Yasmeet Cheema
The 8th annual Sierra Invitational kicked off for cross country, with 11 different teams from Grass Valley all the way down to Nevada Union. Our Varsity Girls team took 5th place. With one of our top returners Jenna Fontes, taking 25th place out off about 200 girls, showing that she is ready for the CCC championships. Sophomore Jami Ford and Junior Morgan Renshaw were right behind her; Ford came in with a time of 23.09 and Renshaw coming in with 23.11 for the 5K.
As for Pitman’s Frosh-Soph girls two-mile run, Pitman came in 4th place. Back again for her second year, Brianda Maldonado proved she was ready for this season, finishing at 13.52 and taking 16th place out of 164 girls. In addition to that, freshman Elisiah Frank and sophomore Mariah Emmons who both are new to this sport finished strong; Frank coming in 21st with Emmons in 28th—both under the 15 minute mark.
However this meet was an invitational, not a league meet. Cross country’s first league meet will be Wednesday, September 15 at Buhach Colony against Atwater, Beyer, Turlock, and Buhach.