30th ANNUAL LAGUNA HILLS CROSS COUNTY INVITATIONAL
Kevin Dempsey Cross Country Course
Laguna Hills High School
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2013
MEET & REGISTRATION INFORMATION:
Location:
Laguna Hills High School, 25401 Paseo de Valencia, Laguna Hills, CA 92653 USA
Kevin Dempsey Cross Country Course:
Named in honor of Kevin Dempsey, the "Father of Laguna Hills Cross Country", who for over a quarter of a century served loyally as the Laguna Hills High School Cross Country Coach, Founder and Meet Director of the Laguna Hills Cross Country Invitational, and designed the course that now bears his name.
The classic 3-mile course is one of the most challenging, spectator friendly, and diverse courses in Orange County, running across the Laguna Hills High School Campus, and the surrounding hills and valleys of the City of Laguna Hills, and is comprised of a varied: 30% grass, 30% dirt trail, and 40% asphalt/concrete terrain.
The course starts on the east end zone of the football field in the Laguna Hills High School Stadium, then loops the LHHS "Upper Field", and runs along the dirt trails and Aliso Creek Bike Trail adjacent to Laguna Hills Drive before passing the 1-Mile mark. The second mile sees the course returning to the LHHS "Upper Field", but exits campus soon after via the LHHS Baseball Field, where the course follows a dirt trail making a wide U-turn before ascending the to the crown of the imposing "Hawk Hill”, only to quickly descend to Indian Hill Lane and the 2-Mile mark at Moulton Parkway. Mile 3 continues to descend to the course's lowest point when it turns onto the Aliso Creek Bike Trail and soon after enters "Death Valley", only to climb steeply once again up ”The Final Ascent” before crossing the LHHS Cross Country Stretching Pad, and finishing back in the welcome confines of the Stadium on the LHHS Track at the 50 yard line on the visitor-side of the stadium.
Course Markings and Clocks:
Course will be chalked, painted, flagged, numerous barricades with signage, and have clocks at the mile marks & finish line.
Course H2O Stations:
Two H2O stations shortly after the 1-Mile, and 2-Mile marks, and H2O bottles distributed in finish chute.
Race Format:
24 races in three divisions
4 Boys races per division: Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors
4 Girls races per division: Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors
Race Schedule by Division - (Race Schedule will be displayed on LHHS Stadium scoreboard):
D1: Green & Red BibsD2: Purple & Yellow BibsD3: Grey & Blue Bibs
Frosh Girls 8:05 Frosh Boys 8:00 Frosh Girls 7:45
Frosh Boys 8:40 Frosh Girls 8:25 Frosh Boys 8:20
Soph Girls 9:05 Soph Boys 9:00 Soph Girls 8:45
Soph Boys 9:40 Soph Girls 9:25 Soph Boys 9:20
Junior Girls 10:05 Junior Boys 10:00 Junior Girls 9:45
Junior Boys 10:40 Junior Girls 10:25 Junior Boys 10:20
Senior Girls 11:05 Senior Boys 11:00 Senior Girls 10:45
Senior Boys 11:40 Senior Girls 11:25 Senior Boys 11:20
Heat Index Race Schedule by Division - For athlete safety; will be decided by the Meet Director on Thursday prior to meet and emailed to coaches (Race Schedule will be displayed on LHHS Stadium scoreboard):
D1: Green & Red BibsD2: Purple & Yellow BibsD3: Grey & Blue Bibs
Frosh Girls 8:00 Frosh Boys 7:55 Frosh Girls 7:45
Frosh Boys 8:25 Frosh Girls 8:15 Frosh Boys 8:10
Soph Girls 8:45 Soph Boys 8:40 Soph Girls 8:30
Soph Boys 9:10 Soph Girls 9:00 Soph Boys 8:55
Junior Girls 9:30 Junior Boys 9:25 Junior Girls 9:15
Junior Boys 9:55 Junior Girls 9:45 Junior Boys 9:40
Senior Girls 10:15 Senior Boys 10:10 Senior Girls 10:00
Senior Boys 10:40 Senior Girls 10:30 Senior Boys 10:25
Parking:
Ample spectator parking in the LHHS, and Laguna Hills Community Center parking lots, and Paseo de Valencia. Busses will drop off athletes on campus and be directed to park along Laguna Hills Drive.
Team Camp Sites:
There will be team camp site space in the LHHS Stadium stands, Upper Field, and Discus Field.
Restrooms and Porta-Potties:
LHHS Stadium and Campus restrooms will be open as well as numerous porta-potties stationed at the Shot-Put Area which is located between the Stadium, and Upper Field.
Trainers:
Trainers will be stationed at the finish line, and end of the finish chute for medical emergencies only.
Commemorative Meet Program:
Comprehensive meet program with the name and bib number of every competitor entered, teams entered by division, race schedule, course map, facilities map, and past results and records will be sold at the LHHS Stadium entrance for $3.00.
Commemorative Meet T-Shirts:
A variety of commemorative LHHS XC Invite T-shirts will be sold just inside the LHHS Stadium entrance for $15.00.
Food and Apparel Vendors
The LHHS Stadium Snack Bar, and food vendors will be open throughout the meet for pre & post race fare.
Rock & Roll to the Finish Line:
Racers can psyche themselves-up to the runner-themed tunes spun by guest Swedish DJ Johan Hökar.
Individual Awards:
Top-40 Finishers in each race will receive a custom Laguna Hills Cross Country Invitational medal.
Team Awards:
Team Plaques awarded to the Top-3 teams in each race.
Team Champion Bags awarded to the Top-7 runners of the winning team of each race.
Mike Lynch Memorial Award:
Awarded to the school with the fastest combined boys & girls team time from all divisions.
Fees (Payable to: Laguna Hills Cross Country):
$10.00 per individual (1 to 5 entires)
or $50.00 per race (unlimited entries)
or $380.00 per school (4x Boys, & 4x Girls races)
Note: $50.00 minimum fee per school
Registration:
Online registration for individual runners is required. Please register at: http://episports.com
Entry period: Thursday, August 1, 2013 at 12:00AM - Tuesday, September 10, 2013 at 11:59PM.
Coaches will receive an email confirming Team Divisions.
We're all hoping for the best for De La Rosa and the Arcadia crew. He'll have his hands full with guys like Blake Haney and Austin Tamagno in the race with him, but I think he can take them down. Despite his 4:00 1500 time, which in my opinion is very soft for him; he does have a 14:40 5k that he did on the track at the Oxy Distance Carnival
We all expect a "different Arcadia team" to show up next weekend.
Doing a bit more digging around I see Bryan Fernandez went 14:19 for the win at Woodbridge last year after running 4:18/1600 the previous spring. There is a lot of pressure on De La Rosa and Arcadia, and historically they thrive on that, so maybe he can pull off the individual title and team title. I'm pulling for De La Rosa, specifically because he is a "cross country runner's XC runner" who gets better as the conditions get worse, and that is inspiring. He's going to have to run inspired to take down someone who has a 1500m best that is 16 seconds faster (3:44 vs. 4:00). Interestingly, Mary Cain's 1500m best is only 4 seconds behind De La Rosa.
If you dig around and do some research, you will find out that De La Rosa was injured last summer and ran his season debut at Woodbridge. He ran that 14:29 off of very little summer training. I think he definitely has more in the tank and can run a very fast time at Woodbridge. I have no comments on his loss to Steve Corrrea. Correa handily won that race and showed that he is a legit contender in the state. I think De La Rosa will improve on this showing and show us why he got that high ranking.
As for the Arcadia team, they were missing three usual varsity members. Josue Gonzalez, Bryan Ngo, and Thomas Tran were not racing yesterday. Gonzalez and Ngo were on the top 7 at State and Nationals last year (Gonzalez: 15:40 @ state, Ngo: `6:05 @ state) and Tran ran 15:38 at Mt. Sac last fall. I think having those guys would influence the scoring quite a bit. Arcadia does tend to sit guys out at the Laguna meet and they tend to bring them back for Woodbridge and have their coming out party then. Expect a different Arcadia Team than what you saw yesterday.
A few thoughts on the Laguna Hills Results. First the Boys ...
First off, merged results revealed some surprises. Here are the merged scores:
1 Canyon (Ana) 121
2 Warren 133
3 El Toro 176
4 Corona 205
5 Dana Hills 218
6 Vista Murrieta 225
7 Arcadia 261
Yes I pulled in 7 teams for a reason - Arcadia was a surprising 7th. Arcadia was missing their projected #3 man, and their 4-5 were different than projected as well. Is this not the same Arcadia team we've seen before, or were they just laying off for their season opener. Time will tell.
On the other end, Canyon of Anaheim was a big surprise, with the top four blowing away the times I had projected off of last years results. They will definitely get a nice boost in the rankings this week.
El Toro and Corona also had multiple runners beat their projected times.
Individually, of course the big surprise was Steve Correa of San Pedro beating Estevan De La Rosa of Arcadia, 14:51 to 15:09. Honestly the big surprise here is an amazing performance by Steve Correa, not a poor one by De La Rosa. De La Rosa didn't hit a home run but 15:09 on a relatively slow Laguna Hills course is very solid and I would say he out-performed the rest of the Arcadia squad on a relative basis. But 14:51 for a kid that hasn't previoulsy distinguished himself for any distance over a mile - well that's amazing.
The deck continues to shuffle...
Correa as Fr
16:48 at Woodward Park (Nov 27) after starting his season off in the mid 19's then 4:31/1600 in the spring.
Correa as So
15:58 winning his race at Laguna Hills Inv & 15:16 at Woodbridge, followed by a 4:17/1600 in the spring.
Correa as Jr
15:26 winning his race at Laguna Hills Inv & 14:54 at Woodbridge, followed by a 4:15/1600 in the spring.
Correa as Sr
14:51 winning his race at Laguna Hills Inv.
De La Rosa as Fr
16:54 at Woodward Park (Oct 9) & 16:11 at Woodbridge, followed by a 4:35/1600 in the spring.
De La Rosa as So
15:49 winning his race at Laguna Hills Inv & 14:41 at Woodbridge, followed by a 4:22/1600 in the spring.
De La Rosa as Jr
Skipped Laguna Hills (teammate Pratt won Sr race in 15:09) then ran 14:29 at Woodbridge (Pratt 14:27), followed by a 4:18c/1600.
De La Rosa as Sr
15:09 for 2nd at Laguna Hills Inv.
Now, I didn't have money riding on Correa in Vegas either, but if you look at the numbers above, it's hard to bet against him. He clearly had far less miles in his legs coming in as a freshman (looks like zero to me) running mid 19's halfway through the season, compared to De La Rosa who was running 16 flat already. By the end of the track season that same year Steve shows his quality and is 4 seconds ahead in the 1600.
What I see above is a case of two very high quality runners, but De La Rosa had a huge head start and further developed his aerobic power by running big miles through high school. Correa showed tremendous capacity to assimilate training load with his initial meteoric rise in fitness, dropping 3:00 off his 3 mile time in the space of 6 weeks his freshman year. Based on that freshman season alone it seems logical Correa's depth would eventually come along and he would be in the position he currently is, contesting for the win among the best.
De La Rosa has seen little improvement since his sophomore season over fast-flat courses like Woodbridge, although he had an admirable jump up on the "true xc" courses like Mt. SAC that require greater concentration and shifts in speed. It will be very difficult for him to run under 14:20 at Woodbridge, which will be needed to contest for the win. Look for De La Rosa to be on the wrong side of 14:20 there, and Correa just under, good for about 3rd or 4th place.
If nothing else, given that Correa and De La Rosa had never lost at the Laguna Hills Inv, we certainly should have expected one of them to win.
Pl Team Score
1 Capo Valley 96
2 Vista Murrieta 102
3 Poway 226
4 Chaparral 234
5 Mira Costa 246
Yes, Capo Valley is as good as we thought! The Cougars were ranked 5th statewide in the preseason rankings, and as a group they exceeded even thoose expectations. The Vista Murrieta girls also showed up ready to run, and were even more surprising placing only 6 points behind Capo Valley. By my math, the entire scoring 5 exceed expectations.
At the next level, Poway and Chaparral put themselves on the map and are possible top 25 teams now. We'll be crunching numbers on that for a day or two
Individually, Capo Valley's Natalie Herberg was a big highlight as the 800 runner stepped up and showed she could dominate in XC.
A few thoughts on the Laguna Hills Results. First the Boys ...
First off, merged results revealed some surprises. Here are the merged scores:
1 Canyon (Ana) 121
2 Warren 133
3 El Toro 176
4 Corona 205
5 Dana Hills 218
6 Vista Murrieta 225
7 Arcadia 261
Yes I pulled in 7 teams for a reason - Arcadia was a surprising 7th. Arcadia was missing their projected #3 man, and their 4-5 were different than projected as well. Is this not the same Arcadia team we've seen before, or were they just laying off for their season opener. Time will tell.
On the other end, Canyon of Anaheim was a big surprise, with the top four blowing away the times I had projected off of last years results. They will definitely get a nice boost in the rankings this week.
El Toro and Corona also had multiple runners beat their projected times.
Individually, of course the big surprise was Steve Correa of San Pedro beating Estevan De La Rosa of Arcadia, 14:51 to 15:09. Honestly the big surprise here is an amazing performance by Steve Correa, not a poor one by De La Rosa. De La Rosa didn't hit a home run but 15:09 on a relatively slow Laguna Hills course is very solid and I would say he out-performed the rest of the Arcadia squad on a relative basis. But 14:51 for a kid that hasn't previoulsy distinguished himself as a state-level contender for any distance over a mile - well that's amazing.
http://www.athletic....aspx?AID=267060
Just evidence that Coach T at San Pedro does a great job developing his athletes.
http://www.dyestatca...44789&year=2013
Doing a bit more digging around I see Bryan Fernandez went 14:19 for the win at Woodbridge last year after running 4:18/1600 the previous spring. There is a lot of pressure on De La Rosa and Arcadia, and historically they thrive on that, so maybe he can pull off the individual title and team title. I'm pulling for De La Rosa, specifically because he is a "cross country runner's XC runner" who gets better as the conditions get worse, and that is inspiring. He's going to have to run inspired to take down someone who has a 1500m best that is 16 seconds faster (3:44 vs. 4:00). Interestingly, Mary Cain's 1500m best is only 4 seconds behind De La Rosa.
As for the Arcadia team, they were missing three usual varsity members. Josue Gonzalez, Bryan Ngo, and Thomas Tran were not racing yesterday. Gonzalez and Ngo were on the top 7 at State and Nationals last year (Gonzalez: 15:40 @ state, Ngo: `6:05 @ state) and Tran ran 15:38 at Mt. Sac last fall. I think having those guys would influence the scoring quite a bit. Arcadia does tend to sit guys out at the Laguna meet and they tend to bring them back for Woodbridge and have their coming out party then. Expect a different Arcadia Team than what you saw yesterday.
Scott Joerger, on , said:
First off, merged results revealed some surprises. Here are the merged scores:
1 Canyon (Ana) 121
2 Warren 133
3 El Toro 176
4 Corona 205
5 Dana Hills 218
6 Vista Murrieta 225
7 Arcadia 261
Yes I pulled in 7 teams for a reason - Arcadia was a surprising 7th. Arcadia was missing their projected #3 man, and their 4-5 were different than projected as well. Is this not the same Arcadia team we've seen before, or were they just laying off for their season opener. Time will tell.
On the other end, Canyon of Anaheim was a big surprise, with the top four blowing away the times I had projected off of last years results. They will definitely get a nice boost in the rankings this week.
El Toro and Corona also had multiple runners beat their projected times.
Individually, of course the big surprise was Steve Correa of San Pedro beating Estevan De La Rosa of Arcadia, 14:51 to 15:09. Honestly the big surprise here is an amazing performance by Steve Correa, not a poor one by De La Rosa. De La Rosa didn't hit a home run but 15:09 on a relatively slow Laguna Hills course is very solid and I would say he out-performed the rest of the Arcadia squad on a relative basis. But 14:51 for a kid that hasn't previoulsy distinguished himself for any distance over a mile - well that's amazing.
The deck continues to shuffle...
Correa as Fr
16:48 at Woodward Park (Nov 27) after starting his season off in the mid 19's then 4:31/1600 in the spring.
Correa as So
15:58 winning his race at Laguna Hills Inv & 15:16 at Woodbridge, followed by a 4:17/1600 in the spring.
Correa as Jr
15:26 winning his race at Laguna Hills Inv & 14:54 at Woodbridge, followed by a 4:15/1600 in the spring.
Correa as Sr
14:51 winning his race at Laguna Hills Inv.
De La Rosa as Fr
16:54 at Woodward Park (Oct 9) & 16:11 at Woodbridge, followed by a 4:35/1600 in the spring.
De La Rosa as So
15:49 winning his race at Laguna Hills Inv & 14:41 at Woodbridge, followed by a 4:22/1600 in the spring.
De La Rosa as Jr
Skipped Laguna Hills (teammate Pratt won Sr race in 15:09) then ran 14:29 at Woodbridge (Pratt 14:27), followed by a 4:18c/1600.
De La Rosa as Sr
15:09 for 2nd at Laguna Hills Inv.
Now, I didn't have money riding on Correa in Vegas either, but if you look at the numbers above, it's hard to bet against him. He clearly had far less miles in his legs coming in as a freshman (looks like zero to me) running mid 19's halfway through the season, compared to De La Rosa who was running 16 flat already. By the end of the track season that same year Steve shows his quality and is 4 seconds ahead in the 1600.
What I see above is a case of two very high quality runners, but De La Rosa had a huge head start and further developed his aerobic power by running big miles through high school. Correa showed tremendous capacity to assimilate training load with his initial meteoric rise in fitness, dropping 3:00 off his 3 mile time in the space of 6 weeks his freshman year. Based on that freshman season alone it seems logical Correa's depth would eventually come along and he would be in the position he currently is, contesting for the win among the best.
De La Rosa has seen little improvement since his sophomore season over fast-flat courses like Woodbridge, although he had an admirable jump up on the "true xc" courses like Mt. SAC that require greater concentration and shifts in speed. It will be very difficult for him to run under 14:20 at Woodbridge, which will be needed to contest for the win. Look for De La Rosa to be on the wrong side of 14:20 there, and Correa just under, good for about 3rd or 4th place.
If nothing else, given that Correa and De La Rosa had never lost at the Laguna Hills Inv, we certainly should have expected one of them to win.
Merged results:
Pl Team Score
1 Capo Valley 96
2 Vista Murrieta 102
3 Poway 226
4 Chaparral 234
5 Mira Costa 246
Yes, Capo Valley is as good as we thought! The Cougars were ranked 5th statewide in the preseason rankings, and as a group they exceeded even thoose expectations. The Vista Murrieta girls also showed up ready to run, and were even more surprising placing only 6 points behind Capo Valley. By my math, the entire scoring 5 exceed expectations.
At the next level, Poway and Chaparral put themselves on the map and are possible top 25 teams now. We'll be crunching numbers on that for a day or two
Individually, Capo Valley's Natalie Herberg was a big highlight as the 800 runner stepped up and showed she could dominate in XC.
First off, merged results revealed some surprises. Here are the merged scores:
1 Canyon (Ana) 121
2 Warren 133
3 El Toro 176
4 Corona 205
5 Dana Hills 218
6 Vista Murrieta 225
7 Arcadia 261
Yes I pulled in 7 teams for a reason - Arcadia was a surprising 7th. Arcadia was missing their projected #3 man, and their 4-5 were different than projected as well. Is this not the same Arcadia team we've seen before, or were they just laying off for their season opener. Time will tell.
On the other end, Canyon of Anaheim was a big surprise, with the top four blowing away the times I had projected off of last years results. They will definitely get a nice boost in the rankings this week.
El Toro and Corona also had multiple runners beat their projected times.
Individually, of course the big surprise was Steve Correa of San Pedro beating Estevan De La Rosa of Arcadia, 14:51 to 15:09. Honestly the big surprise here is an amazing performance by Steve Correa, not a poor one by De La Rosa. De La Rosa didn't hit a home run but 15:09 on a relatively slow Laguna Hills course is very solid and I would say he out-performed the rest of the Arcadia squad on a relative basis. But 14:51 for a kid that hasn't previoulsy distinguished himself as a state-level contender for any distance over a mile - well that's amazing.
The deck continues to shuffle...