Menlo Park runners qualify for National Junior Olympics Cross-Country Championships in Indiana

It was a cold Sunday morning at Woodward Park in Fresno, but the Run Club Menlo Park team didn’t mind. Of the 29 runners that raced that day, 19 qualified for the Junior Olympics championship race in Indiana on December 14.

The best individual finishers were Catherine Qiao 4th, Zaya McDaniel 5th, and Savanna Betancourt 12th in the girls 7-8’s and Mila Brouwer 12th, girls 9-10’s.

The boys 7-8’s team won the USATF Region 14 Junior Olympic Championships over Mission Valley 34-36 with all six runners qualifying individually too: Gael Anchondo Esparza 13th, Henry Loewke 15th, Jonathan Golani 17th, Asher Imam 18th, Taro Abdulla-Kuo 19th, and Elijah Contreras 20th.

The girls 9-10’s took 2nd place to Mission Valley 45-25 and the individual qualifiers were Eva Boog 27th, Seori Onishi 28th, Charlotte Hsieh 29th, and Sophia Maisano 30th. The boys 9-10’s took 3rd and the individual qualifiers were Adam Chengley 17th and Clark Payne 27th. The qualifiers in the girls 11-12’s were Eve McKenzie 25th and Mira Doshi 28th. Finally, Mia Smith qualified in 18th place in the girls 13-14’s.

Top photo books 7-8 race start; second photo shows them displaying their gold medal