Ethan Comeaux battling with Seth Hirsch for the lead early on in the Gold race.
4) California's Up & Down Road Trip To Minnesota
It was a mixed day for California teams at Roy Griak. The girls didn't fare too well with the #25 ranked Claremont team likely headed off the national rankings after a 4th place finish. Front runner Annie Boos didn't have a good start. She found herself distanced from the lead chase group back in 23rd. After fighting with the pack up to 20th through the 3K mark, she closed well to finish 10th overall. That was the silver lining for Claremont's day as only one other athlete cracked the top 30.
The Claremont boys are higher ranked on the boys side at #18 and made their case to make some moves in the next team update. It was a solid performance from the entire team. Top finisher Ryan Renken finished 9th overall and they put two more in the top 20. With their remaining scorers crossing for a 55 second 1-5 split, the team finished just over 20 points behind Wayzata. This is a great result for Claremont to show they can hang with a top 10 ranked team in tough conditions.
The Redondo boys also made the trip from California, but had to fight to break into the top 20. They finished in 17th with 534 points. If cross country was like cycling and they presented a "Most Aggressive Rider" award, I would give it to Redondo's Ethan Comeaux. The second Seth Hirsch fired off the front of the boys gold race, everyone was content to let him go...well everyone except for Comeaux. Coming off a second place finish in the Woodbridge Rated race last weekend, Comeaux put in a lot of travel to compete in two tough race on back to back weekends. He still went with Hirsch off the front, and actually put in a few surges of his own and briefly took over the lead from the #2 ranked XC runner in the nation. Ultimately, Comeaux wasn't able to hang with Hirsch and began to fade, but he would hold on to be the best California finisher of any race at Roy Griak. He crossed the line in 16:40 for 7th place.