Ramona’s Pendergraph heads to state cross country championships

There were a lot of reasons for Ramona cross country runner Keira Pendergraph to be intimidated heading into the San Diego Section cross country championships Saturday.

First, it was all new for Pendergraph because she’s a freshman and the section cross country championships are totally different from any invitational or league meet.

Second, there was a lot on the line and not only was she trying to help the Bulldog girls qualify for state as a team, but she was also looking at a minimum to qualify as an individual.

Third, she’d never run at the Balboa Park course, and if that wasn’t enough, just minutes before the meet started it began to rain and by the time she and her teammates stepped to the starting line for the Division 3 championships, the course was a quagmire with runners occasionally slipping and falling.

On the positive side, because of the rain, the notorious and very steep Upas St. hill was omitted.

“I wanted the team to qualify, but I also wanted to finish in the Top 10, figuring that would be good enough to qualify for state,” said Pendergraph, who accomplished that goal by placing eighth overall, covering the abbreviated 2.9-mile course in 18 minutes, 15.2 seconds.

The team, running at full strength, finished sixth, just two spots removed from qualifying for state in Fresno Thanksgiving weekend. The Bulldogs missed by just 18 points.

The top five individual finishers who were not part of the four teams that moved on to state also had a chance to advance, but they had to be among the top 12.

Santana’s Harper Diaz defended her Division 3 title and was the first individual, but the next six runners to cross the finish line were from the top four teams, so Pendergraph will get to add the experience of running at Woodward Park.

“I’m excited about going to Fresno,” said Pendergraph while receiving her award. “And I noticed that I beat the girl who beat me in the Valley League championships (Escondido’s Sonya Nichols, who finished 15th in 19:01.5).”

Coach Steve Albanese said he had no magical words of advice for Pendergraph before the race.

“I told her to run the same race she’d run all season,” said Albanese. “I didn’t want her to go out with a crazy fast pace, which happens sometimes because of your adrenalin, but to be sure to have something left for the finish.

“She did take it out a little fast—she was in third place at the mile—and she was really closing on the three runners ahead of her at the finish and was only three seconds out of fifth place. She had a long 200 to 300-meter kick at the finish. She went for it and was in good spirits afterward.”

What about the team, several runners of whom had to adjust previous commitments in other sports just to compete?

“We ran really good as a team,” said Albanese. “When you’re just 20 points from qualifying for state, that’s a good effort.

“The first two teams, Cathedral Catholic (43 points) and La Costa Canyon (48), have dominated this division, so no surprise there. But we were right in the mix at 148 points with Our Lady of Peace (125 points), Mission Vista (130) and University City (132).”

Freshmen Charlee Coerper (27th), Amelia Conkel (32nd) and Yaretzi Rivera (34th) finished close as a group and senior Isabella Accardi (47th) rounded out the scorers.

“Overall you have to be happy with how the team ran,” said Albanese. “The top four finishers were freshmen, so the future is looking very good. You never know who might be coming out to join this group next fall.

“Now Keira gets to experience what it’s like to run the state meet and sometimes doing well in league and CIF motivates others to come out. And this year they’ll get to train in the summer. We’ll see what it looks like in track.”