After giving it much consideration, the Pacific Coast Athletic League this week was forced to cancel the second cross country center meet of the season due to blistering heat waves taking place throughout California.
Wednesday’s Center Meet No. 2 at Toro Park in Salinas was supposed to feature both the Cypress and Santa Lucia divisions, while Thursday’s race had the Gabilan and Mission divisions set to compete at the same site.
The cancelled raced affected Watsonville, Pajaro Valley, Monte Vista Christian and St. Francis high schools.
Watsonville High cross country coach David Knight was disappointed when he received an email notifying him about the news.
“It’s just unfortunate for the kids that we don’t get to race out at Toro [Park] this year, which I think is a big disappointment for us and all the other teams in the league since that’s such a historic course,” he said.
Knight mentioned how the seniors such as Katelynn Ruiz missed out on the final opportunity to test their fitness against the rugged Toro Park course.
“It’s a little disappointing that she wasn’t able to run there one last time,” Knight said.
The Aptos High girls’ tennis team had to postpone Thursday afternoon’s match against Santa Cruz High due to the extreme hot temperatures. Mariners head coach Tammi Brown took a photo while standing on the court holding a digital thermometer that read 43 degrees Celsius, which is 109.4 degree Fharenheit.
Brown said it’s important to note that in general, the radiant heat on tennis courts is about 10 degrees hotter than outside measurements.
“That’s why we have to come up here and actually measure. Because if you look at weather apps it always looks like it may be ‘warm’ but playable,” Brown said in a text message. “We have to keep our players, and spectators, safe.”
Aptos is looking to reschedule its match soon, while Scotts Valley High moved its contest to Soquel High’s campus where it was much cooler than up in the mountains.
But unlike the tennis teams, both cross country center meets are completely canceled and will not be made up.
In an email, PCAL Commissioner Tim McCarthy said “This means that both Center Meets No. 2 for all divisions have been cancelled. There are no steps being taken to make up these meets. If no make-up occurs, the division championships for all four divisions will be determined by the results of Center Meets 1 and 3 and the division results at the League Finals, scored as per the PCAL Cross Country Sports Rules.”
McCarthy said in the email the league is applying the 50 percent rule, which means a runner must have participated in at least one of the two center meets in order to participate in the PCAL Championships at Palo Corona Park on Nov. 2.
Knight said he was surprised to hear McCarthy’s decision to not reschedule Center Meet No. 2 to a different date. But Knight understands how much it takes to coordinate such a large event which can feature up to 500 runners racing in one day.
Cross country meets have changed with the inception of the PCAL. It’s not like before when there were various leagues that had dual meets, making it easier to reschedule a race between two schools rather than trying to coordinate with up to nearly a dozen.
“If we were still following the old school dual meet model, then we probably would have rescheduled it because the PCAL has completely changed the way league competitions happen,” Knight said. “It was the right call to go ahead and just cancel.”
Knight said their contention for a team championship doesn’t change much. He’s looking forward to hosting the third and final center meet of the season at Pinto Lake County Park in Watsonville on Oct. 17 at 3:30pm.
On the 35th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, the Wildcatz’s boys’ and girls’ teams are aiming to shake things up in the Mission Division before heading into next month’s league championships.
Knight said having one less PCAL Center Meet just means every race matters, and the stakes are high any time anytime going into league competition.
“We need to remain focused on our ultimate goal, which is league championships. We’re officially halfway through the season, and we’ve come a long way but we still have ways to go,” Knight said. “We have to roll with the punches, so to speak, and we still have that ultimate plan in place to do well at league finals.”
