The 2021 OVS cross country team lived a Cinderella story.
It was unclear at the start of the season just how good the team would be, as the squad was made up mostly of new runners, and most of those had no competitive running experience. But over the course of the season — among the hills and the heat and the hellish workouts — the team bonded and improved to earn the Omega League championship late last month.
On Friday, Nov. 12, the cross country team capped off its Cinderella season by running the CIF prelims at Mt. San Antonio College, competing against 91 runners from schools across the region on a grueling hot day.
The three-mile course was shortened to a two-mile race due to the 94-degree heat.
Although the boys did not advance to CIF Finals, they showed grit and talent in a fast field of top runners. They are a young squad with only one senior and we look forward to seeing them back on course next year.
“I could not be prouder of the effort these young men put forth in getting to CIF and then running their hearts out on that day,” OVS cross country coach Fred Alvarez said.
Like he has all year, sophomore Ben Manning, who earned first team all league honors with his third place finish in the Omega League championship, led the way for OVS.
Juniors Logan Wallace, Emanuel Zagata-Jacobsen, and Eugene Fisher followed suit, while freshman Shuhei Kotani, senior Darren Jin, and junior William Ramsay rounded out the scoring for the Spuds.
The Spuds, who easily have the hardest cross country course in the Omega League, were feeling confident heading into their CIF Prelims at Mt. SAC after weeks of practice on a course that is filled with hills and an uphill finish.
However the Spuds never got to reach the hills at Mt. SAC, the 3 mile race was cut to a 2 mile dash because of the demoralizing heat wave that ran through the meet.
“It was a very strange (situation) for us, we have been working to run the hills at Mt. SAC,” coach Alvarez said. “Super crazy.”
The Spuds took home the Omega League crown Wednesday, October 27th on a flat and fast three-mile course at Ojai’s Soule Park. The Spuds edged runner-up Newbury Park Adventist by just a few points.
At that meet, Ben and Logan earned First Team All-League honors, while Emanuel and Shuhei secured spots on the Second Team All League.
“From what I’ve heard, this is the first OVS boys cross country team to win league and go to CIF in a long time. It’s pretty awesome to be part of that,” said team captain Ben Manning, who has a decorated line of achievements as a member of the Spuds cross country team prior to becoming an upperclassman.
OVS coaches Fred Alvarez and Gretchen Wachter described the 2021 Spud runners as tough, committed, and kind.
They worked hard in practices, ran on their own on weekends, and focused on the goal of making themselves better runners each week.
It is the first Omega League championship for the cross country team, which up until last year had been competing in the Condor League. The OVS girls cross country team had put together a string of Condor League championships in the past several years, while the boys team has been competitive but had fallen short of a league title.
That ended Wednesday when all of OVS’s top seven runners finished in the top third of of the 57 runners on the course.
“Running at CIF is a great accomplishment,” Mr. Alvarez said. “But for us it really was icing on the cake. Our main goal was to win league, and when we accomplished that, we saw CIF as a celebration of our successful season.”