Saddleback Cup Challenge
Last updated on August 27, 2024 at 8:35 pm
Trabuco Hills HS: 27501 Cordova Road, Mission Viejo, CA 92691
2024 Teams Competing – (2024 Team Rankings TBA): Aliso Niguel (D1, #?), Ayala (D2, #?), Brea (D2, #?), Crean Luthern (D4, #?), El Toro (D2 Boys #?, Girls #?), Huntington Beach (D1, #?), Laguna Beach (D4, #?), Mater Dei (D2, #?), Mission Viejo (D3 Boys, #?), Newport Harbor (D2, #?), Northwood (D1, #?), Orange Lutheran (D1, #?), Portola (D1, #?), Redondo Union (D1 Girls #?, D1 Boys #?), San Juan Hills (D1, #?), Santa Margarita (D3 Boys #?, D3 Girls #?) & Trabuco Hills (D1 Boys #?, Girls #?). This is a small meet but loaded with a number of the top teams, not just in the Southern Section but in the state!!
How are divisions determined in XC? Unlike other sports, divisions are determined by school enrollment. For example, El Toro High School has 1997 students enrolled this year. We miss being assigned to D3 by just 1 student, but we have to compete against teams with much larger enrollment in many of our meets. Teams compete against other divisions not just at invitationals but at league meets as well.
Date: Friday, August 30, 2024
Entries/Roster XC 24 – Saddleback Cup
Attendance/Roll: The Roll will be taken at the meet. Do not go to the 7th period at 3:05 pm
Spectators: All are welcome and free. For 2024, Mr. Follman will have Tacos & Co cater dinner for all our athletes and parents.
Parking: Free in all parking lots.
Everyone Races (with coach’s approval) – Mandatory Meet. ET was undefeated at this meet since its inception in 2017 until the losses in 2022 & 2023. Let’s get the Cup back! Please arrive early/stay late to watch all our races and support your teammates. Please arrive at least 90 min before your race. The race roster will be posted at practice on the week of the race! This is a mandatory meet, if you are unable to attend send in a request through XC Stats Absence Report at least 48 hours before the meet. If you are approved, you will be excused but must turn in a makeup assignment.
Bus Schedule: No transportation is provided for this meet. Please turn in your Transportation Exemption Form and arrive early.
2024 TH Home Course Map and Meet Information
Forecasted Weather Conditions for the Saddleback Cup
2024 Race Schedule
- 6:15 pm Girls JV
- 6:35 pm Boys JV
- 6:50 pm Girls Frosh
- 7:10 pm Boys Frosh
- 7:25 pm Girls Varsity
- 7:40 pm Boys Varsity
2024 Runners of the Meet
- Girls JV – Jayla Chan
- Boys JV – Landon Burdg
- Girls Frosh – Caitlyn Otaguro
- Boys Frosh – Nate Waite
- Girls Varsity – Ava Crocker, Sarah- Ann Tok, Lilly Schroeder
- Boys Varsity – Christian Throop
2024 Race Recap
This year at the Saddleback Cup Challenge, El Toro opened the season at Trabuco Hills High School competing against some of the top teams in the Southern Section. With Adam Follman’s generous donation, it was like a festival with multiple canopies including a Parent Hospitality area. Adam also had it catered by Tacos & Co for our athletes and parents. The Chargers came into their first race ready to test their fitness after a big summer training.
JV Girls: The meet started out with a bang with our JV girls taking the win by putting 4 runners in top 12. JV girls have never lost this invite since the invite’s inception in 2017. That is some streak, girls!! JV girls also set a new invite school record in a time of 64:37. Jayla Chan showed that she was back after a heart-breaking injury last year by finishing in 4th place. Charlotte Barkehanai (7th), Malena Pedrani (8th), Avery Miller (10th), Elle Craib (12th), and Kiana Mehranfard-Duran (19th) rounded out our scoring team and all ran a new PR for the invite. Riley Pratt, Lauren Banner, Miranda Mora, Norah Storm, Aryssa Negahdauree, Allison Castillo, Morgan Raguse and Daniela Arteaga were our JV team. This invite did not offer a sophomore division.
JV Boys: The JV squad led the night off for the boys team, finishing in 4th place out of 15 teams. The team was paced by junior Wyatt Fishburn, finishing 5th in a time of 10:16.0 – the 3rd fastest JV time at Saddleback Cup in school history! Behind Wyatt were sophomores Kyle Doherty and Cole Bulman in 10:23.3 and 10:37.5, respectively, and senior Zander Barrera in 10:47.4. Following Zander was our surprise performance of the day, with junior Landon Burdg stepping up big to round out our scoring in 32nd with an astounding 10:52.7! After Landon was Aiden Bulman in 11:13.2, Sean Schuler in 11:18.0, Lorenzo Portabales in 11:31.5, Adit Shah in 11:32.5, Connor Lee in 11:48.5, Luis Torres in 12:06.8, Jacob Remmes in 12:07.0, Thomas Dinh in 12:11.8, Orion Lee in 12:14.5 (a 2:58.9 second improvement from last year’s race!), Ethan Liccardo in 13:18.2, Nicolas Lam in 13:21.0, Phin Fuge in 13:49.1, Xavier Lee in 14:37.5, Samuel Williams in 15:22.5 and Martin Turner in 15:57.0. Overall, this squad set the JV team time record at Saddleback Cup! Incredible performances, all around.
Frosh Girls: This year brings us a small but incredible group of Frosh girls. Unfortunately, we only had 4 runners as 3 girls moved up to race in the Varsity race. Caitlyn Otaguro ran a fantastic race even with a nagging injury and finished 9th in the race. She also moved up to 11th runner on the team with her time of 12:49.3. Kennedy Kornfeld (35th), and Isabela Longo (40th) who are some of the hardest working athletes on the team were 2nd and 3rd for ET. Newcomer Kirsten Riego who has only been running for little over 2 weeks was our 4th runner. All 4 girls ran a big PR for the 2 mile race.
Frosh Boys: There was a bit of excitement and curiosity amongst the coaching staff going into this race. This was a freshman boys squad that had just recently begun to find its footing late in the summer. Wow, did they outdo themselves in this one! Facing adversity in the early stages of the race with leader Zane Blattner being tripped within the first mile, the boys responded in a big way. Zane showed incredible grit by courageously getting back onto his feet and fighting to finish in 23rd with a time of 11:27.6, but it was Nate Waite who paced the team, showing the competitive drive he’d displayed in the summer workouts to lead the team with a very impressive 11:16.7 (#5 ET All-Time Fr at Saddleback Cup). Not far behind Nate and Zane were freshmen Will Ferris in 11:47.5, Jayden Serafica in 11:54.5, Kade Barrera in 11:55.5 and Samuel Russell in 11:56.6. Rounding out the team was Yuya Punyasavatsut in a fantastic 12:09.8, Brayden Simms stepping up in a big way to run 12:23.8, Ben Cymbor in 12:58.4, Dash Liccardo in 13:18.2, Brayden Scaffide in 13:59.7, Sankalp Trivikraman in 14:02.9, Aaron Otaguro in 14:10.8, Jason Laubach in 15:20.3 and Dimitri Dixon battling through a nagging injury to cross the line in 18:49.2. It is obvious this group of young men are starting to figure it out, and as they continue to rally together they will become a force to be respected in the weeks, months and years to come!
Varsity Girls: We knew it was going to be a difficult task to bring the cup back to El Toro this year, but the girls showed it was much closer than expected. Just a 5.1-second difference in a few of our runners positions would have tied the score at 46/46 with ET winning on our 6th runner. Nevertheless, it was a fantastic day with a second-place finish with Gwen Williams demolishing her own school record from last year in a time of 10:48.1 and becoming the first runner to break 11 minutes. Lucy Varela had a huge race with 7th place finishing in 11:10.0. Followed by Samantha Danaher in 13th, and our 3 frosh girls coming in within 1.2 seconds of each other in 16th, 18th and 20th places. Ava Crocker was the fastest frosh of the day with Sarah Ann Tok and Lilly Schroeder as the 3rd and 4th fastest frosh of the invite. These 3 girls would have broken the old record held by Ashley Messineo who is arguably the greatest ET girls distance runner. Our 7th runner was Sara Johnson with Dakota Danaher and Elizabeth Smorick rounding out our varsity team. All 9 girls also ran under 12:00 which is just a mind-boggling stat. They all ran a PR for this invite and went on to shatter the team time record for this invite by a staggering 2 min 41 seconds in a time of 56 minutes.
Varsity Boys: After a very successful summer of many, many miles, this varsity boys squad came into this first race ready to finally test their newfound fitness against some of the best teams in the Southern Section. The main focus going into the meet was to shake off some of the off-season rust and get back into the racing routine to prepare for some of the bigger races later in the season. Once again, this team showed it is one of the strongest in recent history by setting the school team time record at Saddleback Cup in 48:26, bettering the mark set by the historic 2017 team by 46 seconds. The team finished 3rd overall, led by senior Daniel Bulalacao who finished 5th in a time of 9:27.4. With that time, Daniel set a new individual school record for the meet, previously held by El Toro great Garrett Hartline set in 2021. Behind Daniel was a very strong performance by Christian Throop in 9:39.6, Rogan Arriaga battling back from illness in 9:45.1, Takumi Washiyama (#2 ET All-Time Jr at Saddleback Cup) in 9:45.2 and junior Josh Barron (#3 ET All-Time Jr at Saddleback Cup) in 9:48.9 to round out our top 5 scorers. Following them was standout freshman Mario Cendejas (#1 ET All-Time Fr at Saddleback Cup) in 9:56.4, sophomore Levi Varela (#2 ET All-Time So at Saddleback Cup) in 9:59.7, Gavin Crocker in 10:03.8, Luke Cymbor in 10:21.1 and Asher Gould in 10:38.1. Overall, 7 athletes ran under 10:00 with more in the wings ready to make the leap. Surely, a great start for a team ready to make a statement this year.