Mt. SAC Sweepstakes Race Preview: Records Could Be Broken

One name the entire country should be watching at this meet is Claudia Lane from Malibu High School. She's last year's Foot Locker National Champion. This will be Lane's first major race of the 2017 season and she's looking to go all-out. She's already had two wins at smaller races this season, one at the Lake Casitas Twilight Invitational (16:32.00 - 5K) and the other at TCAA Cluster (16:20.81- 5K). According to her coach, Lane was holding off on big meets or racing too early as she's looking to perform well again at the end of the season and go later into the year with more international races.  

Running in the low 16s would put the course record of 16:00.00 in jeopardy. The record is currently held by 2014 Simi Vally High graduate Sarah Baxter, who now runs for the University of Oregon. She set that record back in 2012. We could see Lane break the record and run sub 16 minutes if conditions are right. 

A time under 16 minutes would be a big response to what Flo50 No. 1 Katelyn Tuohy of North Rockland was able to do last weekend at Manhattan when she smashed Corning (NY) graduate Jess Lawson's course record of 13:53 by running 13:21. 

Other girls who will look to be in the mix for the title are Akemi Von Scherr of La Quinta High, and Chloe Arriaga of Walnut High. Von Scherr has the fourth-fastest 3-mile and fifth-fastest 5K time in the race; she was only 25th in the Wood Bridge Cross Country Classic girls sweepstakes race, but she's finished first or second in almost every race since. Last year she was 12th at the D1 girls CIF state cross country championships and 10th in the D1-D2 Individual Sweepstakes at Mt. SAC as a freshman. Arriaga was one of only a handful of underclassmen to finish in front of Von Scherr at last year's Mt. SAC Relays. Look for both to be near the top again in 2017.