Aptos senior Vincent Sanford-Carroll threw on a pair of headphones prior to last week’s race at the Central Coast Section Cross Country Championships in Belmont.
He was rocking out to some of his favorite songs, including “Dream On” by Aerosmith. It’s a tune that’s calming at first but then the rhythm begins to pick up as Steven Tyler and company start to jam out.
“That’s how I want my race to be,” Sanford-Carroll said. “You feel good the first mile. And at the end, that screaming of ‘Dream On’, kicking. That’s what I did today.”
Sanford-Carroll and teammate sophomore Sam Hansen earned medalist honors to help the Mariners place third as a team with a score of 74 in the Division III race Nov. 16.
Aptos’ dream season continues with a trip to the California Interscholastic Federation State Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 30.
“This was out of our range a year ago, and now we’ve redeemed ourselves,” Sanford-Carroll said. “We’ve done something that was, I wouldn’t say impossible, but very hard for us. So, I’m super happy.”
Hansen placed fifth in 15 minutes, 26.3 seconds, while Sanford-Carroll (15:50.97) was right behind him in sixth on the 2.95-mile Crystal Springs cross country course.
“This means so much to me. I’ve been wanting to go to cross country state for so long,” Hansen said. “My whole family came here to support me. I’m just so happy with my time and my placement, this is wonderful.”
Sacred Heart Cathedral seniors Miles Cook (14:52.86) and Cam Gregg (15:13.51) finished 1-2, respectively, across the finish line. St. Ignatius senior Trey Wright (15:17.47) took third.
St. Ignatius won the team title with a score of 45, while Sacred Heart Cathedral (72) edged Aptos for second place.
“We’ve been putting in the work, track workouts, hill sprints, weight room, everything,” Sandford-Carroll said. “We’ve all stayed focused, and that’s been our end goal for the whole season: We’re gonna go to State. That’s all we could think about.”
Other top finishers for Aptos included junior Brady Bliesner (16:36.65) in 18th, sophomore Anthony Sandford-Carroll (20th; 16:45.94), senior Andrew Pursley (25th; 16:52.32) and junior Sean Mullen (32nd; 17:10.03).
“Most of them ran their best, by far, on this course,” Aptos coach Dan Gruber said. “They came to race and they raced very well.”
Gruber said they were aiming for at least a fourth place finish behind some of the elite teams such as St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral.
“I still felt we could race with them if we just put it on, and we were there,” he said.
Gruber was impressed with how determined this year’s group was on earning a trip to state together, for each other.
“There’s a really good esprit de corps,” he said.
Pajaro Valley juniors Erik Michi (18:02.04) and Luis Martinez (18:47.36) finished 54th and 69th, respectively, in their first-ever trip to the CCS finals.
Watsonville sophomore Nain Garcia-Ferria (17:03.04) and senior Rodrigo Barranco (17:24.34) placed 46th and 58th, respectively, in the D-I race.
Mountain View junior Ryan Chen won the D-I race in 15:16.50, beating fellow teammate sophomore Yuval Goldberg (15:22.96) in second and Bellarmine senior Devansh Shah (15:28.50) in third.
Monte Vista Christian qualified for the CIF State Championships following a fourth place finish as a team with a score of 114 in the Division V race.
Junior Gavin Beckmen was the top finisher for the Mustangs, placing 13th in 16:37.17. He finished slightly ahead of teammate senior Justin McCullick (16:46.84) in 19th.
Menlo senior Landon Pretre won the D-V race in 14:24.78, followed by Crystal Springs senior Benjamin Bouie (14:27.81) in second and Menlo senior William Hauser (15:01.36) in third.
Menlo won the team title with a score of 24. Crystal Springs (44) took second and Nueva (113) edged MVC for third place.
Other top finishers for the Mustangs included senior Bradley Orlando (17:00.26), junior Conor Gilliam (31st; 17:19.15), junior Elisha Kieft (36th; 17:33.71), junior Dilano Lucero (51st; 18:08.18) and sophomore Luciano Guerra (68th; 18:46.22).
Santa Cruz senior Eli Fitchen-Young won the Division IV boys race in 14:23.5, setting a course record that was held for more than 40 years. He finished more than one minute faster than Scott Valley junior Aaron Weiss (15:42.1) in second and Carmel senior Mack Aldi (15:50.02) in third.
“[Fitchen-Young’s] so fast, it’s honestly fun to watch him race,” Weiss said. “It almost doesn’t feel like you’re racing him, because he’s just that much ahead of you. It’s really cool just to be with him, especially when he’s out here setting a course record.”
Marina won its first-ever team title with a score of 74, beating both Santa Cruz (95) and Mills (96).
Weiss and Aldi both advanced into the CIF State Championships.
“Super excited,” Weiss said. “Happy that the season panned out. I was a little stressed coming into this, knew there was a couple boys that were definitely even with me, but happy how I ran it.”
Other finishers for Scotts Valley included sophomore Jackson Stull (17:04.88) placed 31st, junior Nate McKeon (47th; 17:22.69), senior Josiah Staley (64th; 17:48.95), junior William von Haunalter (66th; 17:50.94), sophomore Joshua Adams (76th; 18:07.35) and Cullen Dickenson (81st; 18:19.36).
San Lorenzo Valley sophomore Colton Ryssemus took 19th in 16:44.80, while teammate senior Cian Ryan (18:26.28) placed 83rd.
The CIF State Cross Country Championships are set for Nov. 30 at Woodward Park in Fresno. The first race is scheduled at 8:30am. Tickets can be purchased at gofan.co/app/school/CIF.
“I’m so pumped up,” Hansen said. “This might sound crazy but I want to be one of the fastest sophomores in the state in my division. I don’t know what it’ll be like because I’ve never been but I want to really prove to myself what I can do. Prove what Aptos is made of.”
CIF State Boys Cross Country race schedule
- Division I – 9:30am
- Division II – 10am
- Division IV – 11am
- Division III – noon
- Division V – 1pm
