HAYWARD — Middletown High School’s Isaac Rascon and Nicole Pyzer came close, but neither finished high enough Saturday during the North Coast Section Cross Country Championships in Hayward to move on to the CIF State Championships this coming weekend in Fresno.
While both Rascon, a junior, and Pyzer, a freshman, posted personal-best times on the 3-mile Hayward High School course, such was the caliber of the competition in Division 5 that neither was able to make the cut for the state finals.
“I think they did great,” Middletown head coach Annie Schneider said. “Saturday we had several kids PR (run personal-best times), others who PRd on that course from when we ran there during the Mariner Invite (Oct. 19). Isaac PRd by 10 seconds and Nicole by 24 seconds.”
Rascon placed 18th out of 198 runners in 16 minutes, 26.9 seconds. To reach the state meet he needed a time of 15:56.8. Pyzer came in 23rd out of 127 runners with a time of 19:36.4. To advance to Fresno she needed a time of 19:03.5.
Pyzer, a first-year runner, came out of nowhere this season to become the Mustangs’ top runner by season’s end.
“Breaking the 20-minute mark on Saturday was amazing,” Schneider said. “She’s going to be one to watch for seasons to come.”
Middletown’s girls team needed a sixth-place finish or better to reach state and ended up ninth in the 15-team Division 5 field while the boys needed a fifth-place finish out of 24 teams. Neither came close as the girls ended up ninth and the boys 10th. The Mustangs were the top public school in both the boys and girls standings.
“We’re going up against all private schools for the most part,” Schneider said. “It’s pretty tough.”
While the younger girls team was pleased with its finish, not so for the more veteran Middletown boys, according to Schneider.
“The boys took it much harder,” Schneider said. “There was a lot of second guessing. The girls were pretty pleased with themselves.”
Middletown’s season opened with high expectations under second-year head coach Don Cobb, who was dismissed just weeks into the 2019 campaign. Schneider took over from that point.
“It’s been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” Schneider said. “It all kind of just fell into my lap, but it was a great group of kids and that’s why I did not hesitate to step in.”
Boys
After Rascon’s 18th-place finish, the Mustangs’ top runners were Jordan Rego, 74th overall in 17:51.9; Javier Perez, 77th in 17:53.6; Isaiah Diaz, 78th in 17:53.8; Parker Boden, 85th in 18:03.9; and Tyler Cobb, 92nd in 18:14.13.
Clear Lake’s Quinn Wynacht was 99th in 18:19.7 and Middletown’s Cadwallader was 111th in 18:46.3.
Jacob Lehmann Duke of College Preparatory won the race in 15:24.2.
Among Coastal Mountain Conference runners, St. Helena’s Jordan Reilly placed eighth overall in 15:55.7 to earn a state berth. Cloverdale’s Paden Collard came in 10th in 15:57.0 and missed the final available state berth by two-tenths of a second.
San Francisco-University won the team title.
Girls
Following Pyzer across the finish line from Middletown were teammates Erica Kinsel, 47th in 20:56.8; Maya Leonard, 50th in 20:57.9; Giana Tyrrell, 64th in 21:45.9; Alyssa Terry, 75th in 22:28.4; Ximena Ramirez, 86th in 22:57.2; and Mariela Martin del Campo, 90th in 23:16.6.
St. Helena’s Harper McClain won the race in 17:03.8, finishing nearly a full minute in front of runner-up Maya Mason of San Francisco-University (18:01.8).
Lick Wilmerding won the team title.
Overview
Schneider hasn’t decided if she’ll return as Middletown’s coach in 2020. If she does, she’ll have plenty of returning talent.
“I am giving myself some time to think about it,” she said. “My life has been nothing but the team since I became the coach. There’s a lot to do … dealing with kids, parents, transportation. I need some time to decompress.”
Schneider said she fully recognizes the amount of returning talent, including Pyzer, Leonard, Kinsel and Brooklyn Huffman, who left the team for personal reasons late in the season, on the girls side, and Rascon, Diaz, Boden, Perez and Xander Romero on the boys side.
