Incoming freshman runners bring spark to Ramona cross country

Keira Pendergraph liked running but her middle school, Olive Peirce, didn’t have a running club. So, she talked a few friends into forming the Ramona Runners.

In the spring it became an AAU club that competed in the San Diego-Imperial Region 2025 Association Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships.

And fared well.

Keira won the 3000-meter run, Pedro Pulido was third in the boys’ 3000 and James George finished eighth in the same event.

But even more important, all three liked it so much they transitioned to the Ramona High cross country team this fall with positive results, especially for ninth-graders.

It isn’t often that a freshman is the No. 1 runner on a cross country team, but Keira moved right to the front of the girls’ squad. Not exactly shocking, though, since her dad, Mike, is the boys’ coach and her mom, Katherine is an assistant coach.

Actually, Keira trains with the boys’ team.

“I ran track to get ready for cross country,” said the 14-year-old looking back to last spring. “It allowed me to work on my speed. My times in the first two meets of the cross country season would position me as the No. 5 runner if I were competing on the boys’ team. Running against them in practice is fun and it’s what I do to get competition.”

But with her success on the track, what does she enjoy more, cross country or track?

“Cross country is more fun (than track) because you get to run hills and on paths, not just around in a circle,” she said. “I really like it because it gives me a sense of accomplishment.

“I’m keeping a journal of my times so I can map my progress.”

Keira ran so well in the first meet, winning the 2-mile frosh-soph division of the Vaquero Stampede at Lindo Lakes Park in Lakeside by 34 seconds in 12:43.87, that the girls head coach Steve Albanese discussed with her competing in the fastest race in the Canyon Crest Academy Raven Invitational.

Among her competitors in that meet were two-time state champion Chiara Dailey of La Jolla High, former 1600 and 3200-meter section record-holder Jaelyn Williams of Eastlake and section Division 2 champ Olivia Campos of Mt. Carmel.

Although she didn’t really see those three until she finished the 3-mile race in 26th place (out of 189 runners), she looked at it as one of the learning experiences she’ll have this season.

“She wanted to run against those kinds of runners,” Katherine Pendergraph said. “She might have placed higher in a frosh-soph race, but she wants to compete against the best and that race had a lot of great runners.

“It was her choice.

“She discovered that in those kinds of races, you get bumped and elbowed. She got stepped on and pushed but she wanted to get the feel of that kind of competition.”

Her time of 18:26.0 in the Senior Invitational at Raven would have won both the freshman and sophomore girls races.

Keira’s goals are twofold: 1. Win the Valley League and 2. Qualify for the state championships in Fresno.

Pedro, too, got off to a quality start even though he just started running a year ago, finishing second in the Vaquero Stampede in 11:43.68, behind sophomore teammate Brandon “Asher” DiPietro.

Competing in the freshman race at Raven, he collected a Top 10 finish by placing sixth in 17:33.9.

“Pedro’s a soccer player who likes to run and Keira talked him into competing,” Pendergraph said, noting that Pulido is now focusing on running although he plans to go out for high school soccer in the winter. “He just loves to run and he has a big future.

“As for James, he had asthma and at first he couldn’t even run for two minutes straight before he had to stop. But now he’s able to run seven miles without stopping. It has really helped him.”

There is actually a fourth freshman that Keira talked into racing, Charlee Coerper, who will join the Bulldogs team soon now that her club soccer season has ended, giving Ramona five freshman girls and four freshman boys.

That forms a very solid young group that the coaches hope stays together throughout high school.