Warriors girls' overall score at Mt. Carmel Invite tops league - Buchholz, Vela, Dudley, Donoghue medal

Four of Fallbrook High School’s girls cross-country runners left the September 20 Mount Carmel/Movin’ Shoes Cross-Country Invitational meet with medals for finishing among the top 60 in their races, but for Fallbrook head coach Troy Hamlin the biggest highlight of the meet at Morley Field in San Diego was that the Warriors finished ahead of their Valley League opponents when overall positions for all grade levels and school size divisions were considered.

“We had a pretty good showing at Mount Carmel. I was very pleased with the way the girls ran overall,” Hamlin said.

Team cross-country scores are derived by adding the positions of a school’s top five finishers. The sixth and seventh finishers are not scored but can add positions to other teams’ scores. In terms of overall scoring Fallbrook’s total of 1,276 points placed 43rd among all schools. “We were right in the middle,” Hamlin said.

Valley Center accumulated 1,371 points. Ramona’s girls had 1,495 points in the overall scoring. Mission Vista had a total of 1,496 points. All three of those schools are in the Valley League. “We’re as good as anybody else in the league,” Hamlin said. “We have a good shot to complete.”

(Orange Glen did not have the necessary five runners to obtain a team score at the Mount Carmel/Movin’ Shoes Cross-Country Invitational, and Oceanside did not participate in the meet.)

The girls ran a 2.75-mile course. “The girls ran really strong on a really tough course,” Hamlin said. “I was really happy with the times that they ran.”

The Warriors’ fastest runner of the day was Ariana Buchholz, whose time of 18:21 placed 35th among the 244 girls in the Division I sophomore race. That equates to a pace of 6:41per mile for Buchholz, who started with a time of 6:45 for her first mile. The time also translates into a 2:06 improvement from the 20:27 Buchholz posted in last year’s freshman race in which she placed 76th.

In the 159-girl junior race Andrea Vela finished 28th with a time of 18:27 while Natalie Dudley had a time of 18:36 which gave her 32nd place. Vela had a 6:43 per-mile pace and a6:46 first mile while Dudley had a 6:46 average and a 6:44 first mile. “They run off of each other and they really help each other,” Hamlin said.

Fallbrook’s fourth-fastest runner, and the Warriors’ other medalist, was Kiera Donoghue, whose time of 18:41 was worth 54th place in the senior race which had 135 girls. Donoghue, who battled a foot problem, had a time of 6:48 for the first mile. The race was the first of the season for Donoghue, who was not healthy enough to run in the September 13 Laguna Hills Cross-Country Invitational meet.

Although the Mount Carmel/Movin’ Shoes Cross-Country Invitational had separate races for freshmen and sophomores, Hamlin put Fallbrook’s three freshmen in the sophomore race in part so that the Warriors would be able to run together with more teammates and in part to allow for an earlier departure. Freshman Giselle Rivera and sophomore Evie Sanchez ran together with Rivera placing 113th at 20:28 and Sanchez finishing 115th with a time of 20:30.

Hamlin noted that the team’s split between the top four times was only 20 seconds but that the split was 2:07 when the fifth runner was included. “One of our goals is to try to bring our five and six closer to our three and four,” Hamlin said. “If we can close that gap down we can certainly be very competitive in our league.”

Fallbrook’s seventh-fastest runner, Hannah French, had a time of 21:52 in the junior race which placed 114th. She had a 7:34 first mile before the rest of the race gave her a 7:57per-mile average. French was ill and did not run in the Laguna Hills Invitational, so the Morley Field meet was her first of the season.

“We don’t have a large number of people on our team, so we don’t have a lot of depth to back up the top five,” Hamlin said.

The junior race also included Alexis Kalthoff, whose time of 28:16 placed 152nd.

Because the Fallbrook freshman and sophomore runners were combined, the Warriors had a team score in the sophomore race and finished 20th among the 25 Division I schools which fielded full teams. The 22:49 time posted by freshman Katie Cummins gave her 180th place, sophomore Nicole Jones was 183rd at 22:55, sophomore Tiffany Jones completed the course in 24:38 for 210th place, and freshman Shiloh Roque was the 211th finisher 24:39 after the race started.

Donoghue was one of three Warriors in the senior race. Alexi Eich placed 120th with a 22:54 performance. Exchange student Lea Trebichavski, who warmed up prior to the Laguna Hills Invitational but determined that the weather would not produce a suitable run, made her Fallbrook debut September 20 and had a 131st-place time of 23:51. “They don’t have races like that in Austria. She was a little shocked by the intensity of the field and the level of the competition,” Hamlin said.

The team’s other exchange student, Johanna Wehming, was still recovering from removal of her wisdom teeth and did not compete at Morley Field. A hip injury deprived the Warriors of sophomore Emily Larson while freshman Ally Miner had a conflicting soccer commitment.