On Saturday, September 9th, the Torrance Cross Country team competed in the 2023 Rosemead Invitational. There were over 200 athletes entered in almost every race, some with more than 300 runners. Over 70 schools participated and Torrance was the only school who scored in every single race. These races were divided by grade level rather than JV and Varsity races. The placements for each grade were:

The team did really well in the race and their coaches were extremely proud. Many personal records were broken. The day of the race was very humid and dry. The competition was very aggressive due to many runners being crowded in one race. Many runners were set back and stuck behind a pack of other competitors making it hard for them to fight for a good spot. There were many that tripped and fell on each other, but the Torrance team went through the crowd and ran these impressive times. 

The Junior Boys took 2nd place with Ethan Wessels (11th in junior boys race) finishing with a time of 15:30. He broke his personal record by 37 seconds. James Rivera (14th in junior boys race) finished at 15:41, breaking his personal record by 26 seconds. Jack Campbell finished at 16:04, Angel Rodriguez finished at 16:35, and Raphael Noa finished at 16:50. All 5 boys broke their previous personal records and were very happy with how their race went. 

The Junior Girls took 3rd place with Kayla Yonekawa finishing with a time of 20:16. Jaslyn Villacorta finished with a time of 20:52, Katherine Gibson finished with a time of 20:53, and Hailey Rivas finished with a time of 20:59. Samantha Cheney finished with a time of 21:55. The girls did very well and their hard work all summer really paid off.

Maya Okada finished 2nd overall in the Senior girls’ race, setting a new personal record at 18:28. Nasa Amatayakul finished at 20:43, Sophia Millan finished at 20:55, and Rianna Abalos finished at 20:56. The girls finished 2nd overall with many of them breaking previous personal records.

Sophomores, Sofia Wessels and Alyssa Moreno did very well in their race, both finishing with a new personal record. Sofia finished at 19:13 and Alyssa finished at 19:49. Riley Gibson was unable to compete due to getting sick. If she had been able to race, the sophomore girls would have definitely placed much higher. 

Coach Israel Pose was proud of how everyone raced and was especially proud that the team had enough runners to score in every race. When congratulating the team the next day Coach Pose wrote, “I take incredible pride in that, you guys! Knowing that we put at least 5 people in every race, shows what our program is truly about.” Rosemead was a great race to prepare the team for the Woodbridge Invitational on Friday, September 15. There will be a lot more schools and higher competition at the meet but Coach Pose believes that the team is ready.