By Leonard COUTIN

Celebrating it’s third anniversary, the Cool Breeze Invitational, held at the Brookside Country Club on Sept. 7, attracted runners from across Southern California, promoting a full scale of races for freshmen, sophomore and varsity. The invitational featured the night’s elite open two varsity seeded races for the top boys and girls. Runners took opportunities of early season performances to analyze their strengths and weaknesses, then will make adjustments during the season to maximize their running times.

Crescenta Valley High School junior Dylan Wilbur and Golden Valley senior Daniel Rush, who already went one-on-one in the CV first nonleague meet last week, found themselves in another rivalry race that helped to smash course records set by former CV graduate Colin FitzGerald in 2016 and again in 2017. Though Wilbur didn’t appear concerned with the clock, his response to the competition spurred him on at the final sprint to set a new record time of 14:26.7, capturing the win, followed by Rush, who clocked in at 14:27.7. Wilbur conquered FitzGerald’s record-setting time of 14:55.86 set in 2016 and his time of 14:52.8 set in 2018, securing his spot in Cool Breeze history.

As a team, CV scored fifth place in 2016, returning in 2017 to win the invitational. This year the team took second place.

Coach Mark Evans was satisfied with the boys’ performance.

“We are very pleased with our effort on Friday night,” he said. We really did not know how we would fare against a group of teams that were ranked ahead of us in the preseason ranking. While we had a good showing in our opening meet, this was going to be much tougher. The team really rose to the occasion and ran well. This is the third year in a row we have had an individual win the race. Dylan and Manan [Vats] ran very well up front and Dylan surged to beat some very well regarded individuals.”

Vats placed eighth in a time of 14:41.5; Grant Luaterback took 35th (15: 13.5), Erik Faeustle 47th (15:23.8), Ameer Mohammed 76th (15:38.4), Evan Doloszycki 99th (15:54.4) and Ethan Sharp 143rd (16:20.5).

“Grant Lauterback moved up 65 places in the last half of the race,” said Evans. “Erik Faeustle had a great race in a very tough field. Ameer also had a great effort in one of the toughest races he has been in.”

What is amazing is that seventeen runners went under the previous course record.

Final team seeded score: Claremont 68, CV 167, Palos Verdes 184, Saugus 196, Woodbridge 210, Redlands East Val 213, Indio 239, Martin Luther King 273, Trabuco Hills 284 and De La Salle 300

The CV varsity girls faced some keen talent from Oak Park senior Sarah Shulze who ran 16:32.2 for the win followed by Serrano ninth grader Tiani Goeson (16:39.6). CV’s lead runner Sophia Atin scored 40th (18:12.5) followed by teammates Gabriela Borraez in 78th (18:49.4) and Samantha Moore, 79th, 18:50.3. Sarah Nakama scored 97th (19:10.8), Heeg McKenna 108th (19:21.9), Izzy Lieberman 117th (19:30.5) and Sarah Benitez 125th (19:40.8).

“The girls ran very well,” said Evans. “We had three girls under 19 [seconds] and nine under 20:00. We will continue to improve and get stronger.”

Final team seeded score: Claremont 75, Saugus 103, Serrano 140, Canyon-Ana 168, Redondo 217, Palos Verdes 257, La Cañada 265, Valencia-V 296 Santiago (cor) 300, St Margaret’s 358, CV 402

“Our sophomore boys continue to get stronger,” Evans said of his younger squad. “We had our top five in the first 15 in the race with three in the top 10 and our first seven in the top 31. This was a great effort for them.”

  Leonard Coutin