PVIS XC TEAMS WIN STATE
• PVIS continues the long Peninsula tradition of cross country excellence.
Palos Verdes Intermediate School runners dominated the California State Middle School Cross Country Championships, winning the 8th grade girls and 6th grade boys team titles and finishing second in two other races at Riverside’s Reid Park Friday.
Sea Kings’ Matthew Cartmill was third in the 8th grade boys race, Matthew Farnsworth placed fourth in the 7th grade race on a day when PVIS had seven top-10 individual finishes and was the only school to finish in the top three in the team standings in four races.
The race results showed incredible performances from all PVIS runners. The 8th grade girls won first place, adding yet another title to its class. The PVIS title follows its sweeping the 8th grade girls team championship the previous three years at the Mt. SAC Invitational, the world’s largest cross country meet.
Anna Terrell helped her teammates to victory by finishing her race in exactly 12 minutes. Grace Bonvechio and Shayli Atashi followed not far behind Terrell with clockings of 13:22.4 (Bonvechio) and 13:29.0 (Atashi).
Alicia Lala, Karen Hirano, Julia Masuda and Greta Norris all finished close together and sealed the victory with times of 13:47.6 (Lala),13:50.2 (Hirano), 14:16.2 (Masuda), and 14:21.6 (Norris).
An extravagant race by 8th grader Matthew Cartmill, with a time of 11:27.9, led his team to a second place finish. He drove a pack behind him, including William Kirk (11:57.2), Trystan Sheldon (12:04.2), J.P. Warner (12:25.2), and Dylan Booth with a great finish of 12:26.4.
The seventh grade boys’ team finished 4th.
Matthew Farnsworth finishing first for the Sea Kings, clocking in at 11:57.0. Behind him followed Kai Shikiya (13:02.1), Daniel Chu (13:05.7), Owen Chas (13:10.0), Max Orsinger (13:21.6), Karsten Wanke (13:27.8), Dylan Bigley (13:28.7), Zach Moore (13:48.6), Cole Yamane (13:56.7), and Jake Yamane (14:31.2).
Despite battling injuries to key runners in recent weeks, the Sea Kings nearly upset Hillview in a 7th grade girls race that wasn’t decided until the final meters. Hillview just held off PVIS 75-80.
Landon Corman paced the 7th grade girls team with a finishing time of 13:46.4. Our Sea Kings following her: Zofia Lok (13:55.3), Amber Chen (14:04.2), Sarah Park (14:14.6), and Jadyn Lee (14:15.5).
Sixth grade Sea Kings Natalie Wang (13:45.4) and Maddie Farnsworth (14:28.9) barely missed the top three teams for their race. They finished with an outstanding tie for third with Clement Middle School and only missed the third place team by 97 seconds.
PVIS sixth grade boy, Adam Hardesty, finished 8th place overall with a time of 12:51.2. Not far behind followed Michael Mackiewicz (12:57.6), Alex Naehu (13:03.2), Tobias Rodriguez (13:07.5), and Ross Borden (13:19.6).
These young middle schoolers have shown great teamwork and outstanding performances in cross country.
Without the help of their great coaches, Scott Reid, Linda Reid, Martha Espinoza, Roger Booth, Caroline Hardesty, and Frank Ponce, these amazing athletes wouldn’t have been able to put on such a great show at the Middle School California State Championships.
— Shelby Ponce
