Edison's McElroy shows toughness at Mt. SAC
WALNUT — Although a painful tumble in the final mile of the boys individual sweepstakes race cost him a chance to win, Edison senior Matt McElroy walked away knowing that he still had accomplished a great deal.
McElroy recovered from the nasty spill that left cuts and bruises across his back to finish second at the 62nd annual Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational on Saturday morning at Mt. San Antonio College.
"Coming down Reservoir Hill, it was pretty soft on the side and I slipped on the soft gravel and fell," said Mc Elroy, who finished in a time of 14:37. "I'm a competitor and feel like I can give anyone a good fight."
Capitalizing on his McElroy's misfortune, Loyola of Los Angeles junior Elias Gedyon pushed past the fallen McElroy and held on to win in a time of 14:35, the second-fastest time for a junior on the Mt Sac course.
McElroy made it clear he is looking forward to achieving great things on the Mt. SAC course, which will be the site of the CIF-SS Preliminaries and Divisional finals next month.
"I'm definitely trying to go under or at least be around 14:30," he said. "Without the fall, another four to five seconds off my time would have been attainable."
In the boys team sweepstakes, Dana Hills (97 points) placed second overall, as three Dolphins finished in the top 15. Royal of Simi Valley, which had four runners in the top 13 overall, won the team title with a score of 88 points.
"This meet was a test for the kids to see how they could take pressure," Dolphins coach Tim Butler said. "I felt that it was a great day."
Senior Blake Ahrold (14:57) was the Dolphins' top finisher, placing fifth.
In the girls team sweepstakes, Trabuco Hills senior Makenna Smith continued a breakout season, battling among the leaders throughout to finish third overall in a time of 17:39, a 72-second improvement over her 2008 invitational.
"My goal was just to go with how I felt," Smith said. "I've put in a lot of hard work and want to keep improving. This race gave me a big boost of confidence."
The Mustangs finished with 153 points, fifth-best overall and third-best among teams in Division I.
"Based on her training over the last couple weeks, I felt like Makenna was ready for a big-time effort and she exploded," Mustangs coach Dennis Kelly said. "Collectively, I felt that our team ran well today."
The No.1 team in the state, Saugus High (67 points), won the team title with five runners finishing in the top 30. Dana Hills (170 points) was sixth in the team competition, second among participating Division I schools.
