Bulldog girls 8th at Mt. SAC
Ramona High School’s girls cross country team placed eighth among the Division 2 high school teams at the Mt. SAC meet Oct. 25 at Mt. San Antonio College.
Twenty-five schools competed in the division. Two Bulldogs earned medals for being among the top 15 finishers, while two additional Ramona girls had personal records for a 3.0-mile course.
“Four out of five girls PR’d on the hardest course in California,” said Coach Mario Balcom, who was in charge of the team that day since head coach Steve Emery was at a family wedding. “You can’t ask for more than what they did.”
Ramona senior Brittany Balcom placed 13th among the 177 runners with a time of 19:33, which was 1:35 faster than her 2007 time at the Mt. SAC meet. Sophomore Lindsey Spieker’s time of 19:39 earned her 15th place and beat her 2007 time by 1:48.
“We’re excited that we had two girls who finally ran in the 19s,” Mario Balcom said.
In her first-ever Mt. SAC race, Ashley Duck had a time of 20:57 to place 59th. Tessa Balcom’s time of 21:57 gave her 95th place for the race. Chelsey Maurer was ill during the race but still earned 104th place with a time of 22:09, which was 32 seconds slower than her 2007 time.
Although Ramona’s girls finished seventh in the 2007 race, the combined times were faster this year than last year.
“We were really impressed with that,” Mario Balcom said.
Emery was present Oct. 24 for the Jaguar Invitational at Kit Carson Park to coach the Bulldog runners who were healthy and did not compete at the Mt. SAC meet. In the girls varsity race Jessica Russo had a time of 19:08 for the 2.6-mile course, Erika Stinchcomb finished in 19:17, Anna Phillips posted a time of 19:17, Ruth Spitsbergen completed the course in 20:09, Adena Pepich took 20:22, and Sarah Callan crossed the finish line 20:30 after the starting gun.
“That was some nice grouping,” Emery said of the 1:22 difference between the six runners.
Maria Gonzalez had the top time of Ramona’s junior varsity runners at the Jaguar Invitational, completing the course in 20:45.