Sierra League Cluster Meet allows Claremont to see big picture

The first of 3 Sierra League cross country meets is in the bag. And while the Claremont High School cross country team is currently dissecting the positives and negatives of Tuesday's meet, the occasion afforded the Wolfpack the opportunity to see just what it will take to obtain the league crown.

Without Paul Ross, Henry Falotico, Colin Domonoske and AK Metoyer on this year's team, the varsity boys team will have a tough road to travel to repeat its 3rd place standing in the state from last year. The group finished in 5th place overall.

The CHS girls teams are showing constant improvement with the junior varsity girls taking 2nd place and the varsity girls unit placing 3rd. Ayala took first in both races, making the Bulldogs the team to beat going forward.

Chatting with Claremont coach Rob Lander after the meet, the 2 words he used were "competitive" and "fun." While the coach applauds his team's effort and sees room for improvement, he also believes the challenges his runners will face will ultimately make them better runners.

"The Sierra League is really competitive from top to bottom and it's going to be exciting this year," Coach Lander said. "Our boys finished 3rd last year in CIF and Ayala and Damien are ranked teams. The Ayala and South Hills girls teams are both ranked and our girls are hoping they can get a ranking too. It's fun."

The CHS frosh-soph boys team had the best performance on the day for Claremont, taking first place overall and having 5 of its 7 runners finish in the Top 10 individually. Freshman Adam Johnson led the way by finishing in 2nd with a time of 17:36.3.

The CHS JV boys team earned 2nd place in their respective race with Anthony Modyman crossing the finish line at 17:55.7 for 5th place. Look out for the full article in Saturday's issue of the COURIER and check out the web update HERE.