Los Osos Cross Country

8th Grade Family Night: It was great to see and meet so many incoming freshmen! Thanks to the current team members for giving their time to come out and support the program. If you filled out an interest form, you will be contacted after school gets out by a captain. In the meantime, check back here regularly for more information regarding summer practices and athletic clearance physicals.
If you didn’t fill out an interest form and you are interested, please email me at michael.oravets@cjuhsd.net

Qualifying for CIF Prelims as an individual can be a lonely experience, and if it were to happen for a freshman, an intimidating one as well. Finn Lukkarila defied the odds to get here, finishing 8th in the tough Baseline League in his first season, but he ran like he’d been here before. Alone he was not as about a third of the team, boys and girls, showed up to support him on his big day. He was also never alone training this week as Quinn and others joined him to help make sure he wasn’t alone nor felt alone. No doubt an assist for his performance today goes to all that supported him, teammates and family.

As far as the racing goes, he stuck to the game plan, and executed to perfection. Middle of the pack through the first mile in a CIF race, he moved up 7 spots in the second mile, and held his ground from there, finishing 41st out of 94 runners and knocking 1:04 off his time from the invitational on the same course. There is a tendency in sports that when you pull an upset, you empty the tank and have nothing left for the next game and come out flat. Finn did something he shouldn’t have done, he raced out of his mind at League Finals to get to CIF, and many times that’s followed by a flat performance at Prelims. His was anything but flat, as he has peaked at exactly the right time. His 17:01 at Mt. SAC is the #3 mark all-time for a Grizzly freshman, and he should certainly be proud of his accomplishment. Thanks to everyone that made his day so special…great job Finn!

The team returned for a second go-round with the Baseline League schools. This time everything was on the line…the top three teams would advance to CIF as well as any individuals that finish in the top 10 of the varsity races from teams that do not qualify.

On a warm Halloween day on a revamped Red Hill Park course, everyone came to play, including Etiwanda this time. The Girls JV kicked it off with Celeste Chamberlin and Gabby Haddad leading the team to a 5th place finish. Noah Bustamante notched a top 10 finish in the boys race, running strong with support from Troy Trask and Ben Gasparian to give the Boys JV a 3rd place finish, just 3 points out of 2nd.

The Baseline League has had three girls teams ranked in the top 10 in CIF this season, and the loaded field was more than the Grizzlies could handle this time around, despite freshman Emma Rose just missing a CIF qualifying spot with her 11th place finish, the highest finish for a 9th grader in the league. Kyra Garcia ran strong as well finishing 15th in the league.

The boys varsity knew it was going to be a dog fight with 3 teams battling for 2 spots and that would require everyone putting together their best races. It did not happen and the CIF spot eluded them by just 4 points and they were 12 points from finishing 2nd. It was a solid showing, but not enough this time. Finn Lukkarila ran his best race of the year at the best time he could. The freshman finished 8th to move on to CIF Prelims a week from Saturday. The Grizzlies nearly sent another 9th grader as Quinn Kessler finished 11th.

Great job everyone! Let’s help Finn run his best at Mt. SAC on Saturday, November 11th, time to be announced.

Complete Results:
Boys Varsity – 1. Rancho Cucamonga – 20; 2. Etiwanda – 73; 3. Chino Hills – 81; 4. LOS OSOS – 85; 5. Damien – 135; 6. Upland – 145
8. Finn Lukkarila – 16:20; 11. Quinn Kessler – 16:25; 18. Maverick Chamberlin – 16:46; 19. Matthew Ruiz – 16:51; 29. Sacramento Arevalo – 17:19; 30. Jacob Winter – 17:22; 36. Dominic Skiles – 18:06

Girls Varsity – 1. Chino Hills – 33; 2. St. Lucy’s – 67; 3. Rancho Cucamonga – 76; 4. Etiwanda – 86; 5. Upland – 103; 6. LOS OSOS – 124
11. Emma Rose – 20:23; 15. Kyra Garcia – 20:42; 31. Hannah Hassan – 21:45; 33. Kayley Wong – 22:12; 34. Leryn Martinez – 22:13; 37. Savannah Fierro – 23:07; 39. Emmery Mitchell – 24:26

Boys JV – 1. Rancho Cucamonga – 15; 2. Damien – 78; 3. LOS OSOS – 81; 4. Upland – 90; 5. Chino Hills – 108
9. Noah Bustamante – 18:00; 18. Troy Trask – 18:54; 20. Ben Gasparian – 19:05; 26. Alberto Canela – 19:18; 29. Adrian Canela – 19:24; 34. Nathan Lee – 19:39; 36. Fouad Haddad – 20:05; 37. Kyle Thomas – 20:09; 38. John Luck – 20:18; 49. Nathan Torres – 22:49

Girls JV – 1. Chino Hills – 21; 2. Rancho Cucamonga – 42; 3. Etiwanda – 87; 4. Upland – 101; 5. LOS OSOS – 118; 6. St. Lucy’s – NS
18. Celeste Chamberlin – 24:14; 19. Gabby Haddad – 24:33; 22. Vanessa Hernandez – 25:02; 30. Pfeiffer Lee – 25:34; 33. Kaitlyn Cox – 25:43;

The cross country season can be divided into segments. One way is to split it between training and racing. The long grind of August that leads to the first meet, gives way to pressing fast forward as the season flies by after the meets begin. Racing and training can take it’s toll, especially with a young team, and this year has been no exception, as the Grizzlies limped into the Mt. SAC meet and were met with unseasonably warm conditions. Warm enough for some races to be shortened to 2 miles on Friday. Times weren’t great and the team was missing many runners, but that didn’t stop many from excelling and a few taking another step in learning how to race wisely.

Despite many missing pieces, the frosh girls once again brought home the hardware with a 3rd place finish in their race. Emma Rose finished 11th while Kayley Wong and Celeste Chamberlin finished in the top 35 to lead the team. Highest finish in a race belonged to Kyra Garcia, who ran strong to finish 2nd in our sophomore race.

The boys varsity finished 9th out of 19 teams with Maverick Chamberlin and Matthew Ruiz leading the way. Finn Lukkarila finished 5th in our frosh race and ran the 8th fastest time by a freshman in school history.

The Baseline League Finals are next up and it’s a Halloween special!

Complete Results (improvement from a year ago noted):
Boys Varsity (9th of 19 teams; 129 runners): 14. Maverick Chamberlin – 17:06 (-:41); 33. Matthew Ruiz – 17:44; 57. Jacob Winter – 18:20 (-:38); 60. Sacramento Arevalo – 18:26; 81. Dominic Skiles – 19:00; 99. Ben Gasparian – 20:16 (-1:20)

Soph Boys (189 runners): 48. Troy Trask – 19:55; 59. Alberto Canela – 20:19; 81. Nathan Lee – 20:52 (-:47)

Soph Girls (83 runners): 2. Kyra Garcia – 21:12; 24. Emmery Mitchell – 24:01 (-:04); 34. Savannah Fierro – 24:40

Frosh Boys (197 runners): 5. Finn Lukkarila – 18:05 (#8 frosh mark in school history); 90. Adrian Canela – 21:24

Frosh Girls (3rd of 6 teams; 90 runners): 11. Emma Rose – 22:46; 32. Kayley Wong – 25:41; 34. Celeste Chamberlin – 25:50; 61. Vanessa Hernandez – 28:50; 71. Kaitlyn Cox – 29:22

JV Boys (125 runners): 19. Noah Bustamante – 19:03; 81. Fouad Haddad – 21:54; 104. Nathan Torres – 24:00 (-:32)

The team returned to Guasti Park for the Inland Empire Challenge/San Bernardino County Championships and most took advantage of the flat 2.9 mile course to record personal bests on the season.

Running a full varsity team was the game plan, but the boys ended up being shorthanded. Without Quinn Kessler and Dominic Skiles, there was no room for error with only 5 runners, but Matthew Ruiz finished 6th and Maverick Chamberlin finished 14th to lead the varsity boys to a 4th place finish. Kyra Garcia and Emma Rose finished in the top 15 to pace the varsity girls to 5th place.

The season is winding down and the Grizzlies will challenge the hills of Mt. Sac next Saturday before facing league competition again at Red Hill Park on Halloween.

Complete Results (improvement from ’22 noted):
Boys Varsity (4th of 15 teams; 106 runners): 6. Matthew Ruiz – 16:16 (-:19); 14. Maverick Chamberlin – 16:36 (-:33); 30. Finn Lukkarila – 16:59; 34. Sacramento Arevalo – 17:07; 38. Jacob Winter – 17:09 (-:43)

Girls Varsity (5th of 10 teams; 72 runners): 10. Kyra Garcia – 20:13; 14. Emma Rose – 20:27; 41. Hannah Hassan – 21:56; 42. Leryn Martinez – 21:58; 46. Kayley Wong – 22:09; 51. Emmery Mitchell – 22:26 (-:20); 63. Celeste Chamberlin – 23:36

Boys JV (8th 0f 15 teams; 141 runners): 22. Noah Bustamante – 17:29; 29. Ben Gasparian – 17:55 (-1:28); 57. Aaron Sosa – 19:09; 58. Kyle Thomas – 19:09 (-:12); 76. Fouad Haddad – 19:54; 85. John Luck – 20:03 (-:37); 117. Nathan Torres – 21:53 (-:54)

Boys Sophs (147 runners): 75. Troy Trask – 18:40 (-:12); 78. Alberto Canela – 18:42; 101. Nathan Lee – 19:28 (-1:32)

Boys Frosh (146 runners): 50. Adrian Canela – 18:39

Girls Frosh (7th of 9 teams; 87 runners): 41. Pfeiffer Lee – 22:51; 48. Vanessa Hernandez – 23:36; 51. Sage Hopping – 23:56; 52. Gabby Haddad – 23:59; 64. Kaitlyn Cox – 24:57