Ready, set, go!
After more than a year off the course due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cross country has been the first sport to return to active status within the San Diego Section.
Five Grossmont Conference dual meets took place Feb. 12 across East County sites. Additional meets took place Feb. 19 and Feb. 26.
Obviously, a long list of protocols has been enacted to provide a safe and healthy environment in which to compete. The season has also been shortened to just league dual meets and teams are competing primarily on school sites with the closure of some parks.
Despite the challenges, runners throughout the region are rejoicing that there simply is a season in which to finally compete.
Vaquero pride
When the 2019 cross country season ended, the El Capitan High School boys and girls teams had made a trek to the state championship meet in Fresno after placing second among teams in their division at the preceding section finals.
The Vaqueros girls team, paced by freshman AmÂber Chase and senior Carolinh Calvert, placed sixth among the 24 scoring teams at the state meet while the El Capitan boys team, led by senior Andrew Sager and junior Parker Dixon, finished 19th in a field of 25 scoring teams.
Chase concluded a star-studded debut season at the high school level with a meteoric seventh-place finish among 203 runners her division at the state champiÂonship meet while Calvert, completing a star-studded prep career, placed 30th in the field.
Sager finished 28th among the 217 runners to conÂclude his high school career. Dixon had placed sevÂenth at the section finals while Sager was 10th.
El Capitan finished runner-up to Cathedral CathoÂlic in both the Division III boys and girls section fields.
Chase finished second among individuals while fellow ninth-grader Samantha Mauzy finished 17th in the field of 108 runners.
The new season has stepped off in exciting fashion in its own way as El Capitan’s girls team remained undefeated through two dual meets.
The Vaqueros stepped off the 2021 season with a dual meet against Grossmont Valley League rival Santana Feb. 12 at Steele Canyon High School.
The teams split on the varsity scoreboard, with El Capitan winning the girls dual meet by a score of 25-32 and Santana capturing the boys dual meet by a score of 15-49.
El Capitan placed four of the top five runners in the girls dual to secure the season opening victory, led by Chase, now a sophomore, with a time of 15:55 for 2.55 miles.
