The Carson High School girls cross country team poses with the Class 5A state championship trophy after winning their second straight state title. Pictured from left to right are Eleanor Romeo, Vea Miner, Brianna Rodriguez-Nunez, Hannah Budd, Madison Hager, Jinnie Ponczoch and Anna Shane.
Photo by Carter Eckl.
As always, Carson High cross country coach Jason Macy does the math to see where each runner needs to finish in order for the Carson girls team to win a state title.
Going into the race, they thought it would come down to a few key finishes.
Instead, the Carson High girls cross country absolutely dominated the field, putting together a lower score (29) than they had in last weekend’s regional championship (33), en route to their second straight Class 5A state title.
“That was wild. I was not expecting that at all,” said junior Jinnie Ponczoch. “We were just trying to run as fast as we could basically. It’s amazing that we got a lower score than last week.”
“It really looked like we were going to struggle with some of those south teams,” said head coach Jason Macy. “The girls were just able to peak at the right place.”
Locking it up quickly
The team success for Carson has come down to everyone finishing at the top end of the meet.
Sophomore Hannah Budd once again took third overall, matching her finish from the regional meet.
The sophomore posted a 19:51, finishing only behind Eleanor Raker of Galena and Amaya Aramini of Bishop Manogue.
“It’s really exciting that what we’ve worked for and hoped for and dreamed for throughout the season, that we were able to achieve it,” said Budd.
Vea Miner and Brianna Rodriguez-Nunez also finished in the top seven to earn an individual medal.
Miner took sixth place in 20:05, shaving off 17 seconds from her regional time last Saturday, which was also held at Rancho San Rafael Park.
Rodriguez-Nunez was seventh, knocking her time down from 20:31 last week to 20:08 in the state meet.
It was a similar story for the rest of the Senators as Ponczoch took eighth overall with a 20:19, which was 23 seconds quicker than her regional race time.
“It feels good. We’ve worked hard. I think we were feeling a lot of pressure this week,” said Jinnie Ponczoch.
Sophomore Madison Hager was 10th in 20:37, running 13 seconds quicker than she did a week ago.
Freshman Anna Shane was 26th overall in 21:34 while junior Eleanor Romeo was 32nd in 21:43.
Romeo, the team’s captain, said head coach Jason Macy has been a monumental part of the team’s success over the last two seasons.
“It’s honestly all from our coaches. Having Macy as a coach, we would’ve never gotten here without him,” said Romeo. “Coach Hager is a phenomenal add-on this year. It’s all up to our coaches.”
Ponczoch echoed her sentiments.
"Macy does so much research for us to get us where we need to be,” said Ponczoch.
Macy turned the credit to his team, saying he never had to push them to run all offseason.
In fact, it was more often he was concerned about the girls overworking themselves.
“What a lot of people don’t see are the thousands of miles that are put in,” said Macy. “If anything I have to go, ladies we need to hold back, we have a long season ahead.”
The time and effort paid off.
Now, the Carson High girls cross country team owns its second state championship in as many years and not a single member of their varsity lineup will graduate after this season.