Westlake High's boys cross country team is looking to be the cream of the Marmonte League crop again this season, led by junior Mikey Giguere.
Giguere turned in a time of 15 minutes, 1 second at the recent Woodbridge Invitational.
But Warriors coach Joe Snyder says he's frankly more interested in how his team is perceived with qualities that are intangible.
"Honestly, our biggest thing is to go out and be competitive and we want to really, from my standpoint, we want to be ladies and gentlemen when we go out and compete," Snyder said.
"I mean we really want to go out there and have the kids do well not only running and competing, but we also want to try to focus on their character as well. We want to be remembered as being a good team out there and at the same time, be remembered for how well we treated everybody as well."
Individuals Together
Cross country is easier to think of as a team sport than track and field is. While team members are all competing as individuals, there is much more of a sense of working together for one purpose than there is in track and field, where there are so many different things going on at one time.
The team concept can take awhile to develop. Ventura boys coach Tyree Cruz said his team is starting to get the idea.
"How can I say it?" Cruz said recently. "They need to realize that they can be better as a team than they will ever be as individuals and they're really starting to kind of show that. They're happy being with each other, they help each other at practice and workouts and while they want to beat each other, they want everybody to do well. They're competitive and they're also a team."
News and Notes
Fillmore, the No. 1 team in Division 4 of the CIF-Southern Section, won the Stanford Invitational on Saturday, placing six runners in the top 30. Jose Almaguer was 11th in 16:28 and Alexander Frias 15th in 16:19. … Simi Valley has a brother-sister act doing well for the Pioneers. Nikolaus Utash was second Thursday against Agoura and Moorpark in 16:24.21, while Charlotte Utash was third for the girls in 19:17.94. … Also in that girls race, Simi's Sarah Baxter won in 17:33.27 and Moorpark's Monika Gyalay was second in 18:54.30. In the boys race, Moorpark's Michael Picchini won in 16:15.53. … Jimmy FitzGerald — nephew of coach Brian FitzGerald — was second for Rio Mesa at the Dos Pueblos Invitational sophomore race on Friday in 16:30. Rio Mesa's Brittany Gonzalez won the girls senior race in 19:28. … The CIF-SS rankings, which have been expanded this week to a top 13, now include Westlake and Royal as 12th and 13th respectively in Division 2 boys, Nordhoff 13th in Division 4 boys and Oaks Christian 13th in Division 4 girls.
