SPHS Varsity Girls Cross Country Headed to California State Meet

SPHS cross country mt sac
PHOTO: Mike Parkinson | South Pasadenan News | Boys and Girls Varsity Cross Country at Mt. SAC Front row L to R: Raden Estridge(Fr), Rose Vandevelde(Fr), Saidbh Byrne(So), Abby Errington(So), Amelie Geoffron(So), Sofia Humphrey(So), Leo Gonzalez-Pacheco(Sr) Back row L to R: Noah Aldana(So), Kallean Beebe Read(So), Jack Ishibashi(Sr), Keeran Murray(Jr), Owen Correll(Jr), Jason Baek(Sr) Jarvis Kikekawa-Fraser(Jr)

The South Pasadena High School Cross Country Varsity Girls are state-bound! After placing 5th in the CIF-SS Finals at Mt. SAC this past weekend, they have qualified to compete at the California State Meet at Woodward Park in Clovis/Fresno on Saturday November 26, 2022 at 8:30AM. The Varsity Girls broke their own school record for the iconic Mt. SAC course by 2 minutes 11 seconds. D4 is the most competitive of the 5 for the firls. South Pas girls got 2nd in D3, 3rd in D2 or 4th in D1, all of which are much bigger schools. Abby Errington (So) tied her own school record for individuals and the other four scoring girls ranked into the top 10 all-time South Pasadena. This will be the 2nd year in a row that the South Pasadena Girls make it to State Championship with last year being the first time in SPHS history.

SPHS cross country varsity girls
PHOTO: Shari Correll | South Pasadenan News | SPHS Girls Varsity Cross Country Team

After a very successful season, the Varsity Boys missed State by one spot. Top 7 of 16 teams in each of the 5 divisions based on school size (D1 biggest and D5 smallest). At Mt. SAC the boys fell just 16 points shy of the required 7th place in the finals.

SPHS boys varsity cross country
PHOTO: Shari Correll | South Pasadenan News | SPHS Boys Varsity Cross Country Team

According to Coach Mike Parkinson, the teams start out in mid-June at 6AM running, doing drills, strength training, cross training in the pool, massage gun and foam rolling 6-7 days a week – 6-10x half mile hills to the water tower every Monday to get ready for Mt. SAC’s iconic hill course at the CIF SS Championship to get the opportunity to place in the top 7 schools in our division in Southern Section and represent our school at the CIF State Championship. “It’s a huge commitment and the team rose to the occasion,” says Parkinson. “The girls broke school records at every course they ran. Led by sophomores Abby Errington and Amelie Geoffron and seniors Leo Gonzalez-Pacheco and Kiana Dettman and the rest of the top 12-14 varsity team only freshmen and sophomores, they put in the work, and now look forward to placing as high as possible at the State Championship, being “grateful for the pain”. The future looks very bright but this weekend we have a job to do!”

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PHOTO: Mike Parkinson | South Pasadenan News | Abby Errington(left)10th and Amelie Geoffron(right) 12th

The Girls are currently ranked 5th in State and are hoping for an historic performance. Go Tigers!