Fastest in Cate History: Boys’ Cross Country Triumphs
November 30, 2023
Record-Breaking Times, Notable Rankings, and Unmatched Achievements
The boys finished 11th overall, and we were the second Southern Section team behind Viewpoint School. Viewpoint is the same school that beat us by one point for the CIF-SS D5 Championship. (see write-up here if you missed it.) The boys’ accomplishments were very significant this fall; here is what they were able to accomplish.
The 2023 team is now the fastest team in Cate history on the Mt. Sac course as well as Woodward Park, the State Finals site. The previous record for a team time (combining the top 5 finishers’ times) for Mt. Sac was set in 2005 at 1:27.00. This year’s team lowered that time to 1:23.13. As you may know, we ran on the rain course for the Southern Section finals, and that team time was 1:18.44.
Our top 5 runners all earned a spot on the Cate All-Time top 25 time list for Mt. Sac. Sebastian Sutch ’24 #2, Everest Schipper ’24 #3, Ati Zwieback #12, Oliver Lee ’24 #14, and George Gordon ’24 #17. If we were to use the rain course times, Seb and Everest would be 1-2. There is a very good chance that if we ran the regular course, Seb and Everest would have been 1-2 instead of 2-3. The best team time at Woodward Park was also set in 2005 at 1:27.43.
This past weekend, the boys’ team time was 1:24.22. Woodward Park is a true 5k course, and each of the boys ran a personal best for that distance. Everest (15:43) finished 13th overall, a remarkable accomplishment, and Sebastian (15:25) finished 3rd overall after finishing 35 last year when he qualified as an individual. Seb now has the fastest time by any Cate runner on the Woodward course and the 10th fastest time ever by a D5 runner on the course. Everest now has the 3rd fastest time for Cate. Ati was the 6th 9th-grade finisher at the race as well and is 9th on the all-time Cate list. George 17:39, Oliver 17:57, and Jordan Ryan ’26 18:47 all made the top 20 list as well. 10th, 13th, and 19th.
An interesting observation is that the 2005 team placed 4th overall at the State Meet that year and Henry Hagenbuch was second with 15:40. Obviously, the competition has changed since 2005!
We wanted to thank you all for your support throughout the season, and we hope to see everyone again either for the Spring track season or next Fall.
