Favorites reign among changes at Frosh-Soph meet

The format and course changed at the Bud O’Dea Frosh-Soph Championships at Desert Breeze on Tuesday.

But form held consistent among the changes.

Faith Lutheran’s Hannah Pavlov and Bishop Gorman’s Joshua Holland won the freshman races, and Centennial’s Sydney Badger and Tech’s Martin Ponce were winners of the sophomore races.

Pavlov cruised to a win in the first girls race, leading from the start and never trailing en route to a time of 16 minutes, 27 seconds on the 2.5-mile course. The Faith Lutheran freshman was more than 50 seconds clear of second-place Shelby Gibbons of Centennial (17:18.5).

Samantha Reintjes of Palo Verde was third at 17:22.1.

“It was a great race. I felt really good,” Pavlov said. “The race went pretty much as I expected; I like this course. I’m looking forward to regionals and a chance to go to state.”

The freshman boys race saw Gorman take the top two spots. Joshua Holland finished first in 13:44.1 to best twin bother Jacob Holland by nearly 20 seconds (14:03.2). The twins, along with Shadow Ridge’s David Peters, ran closely bunched through the first mile before the Gorman duo pulled away in the second mile.

Peters finished third in 14:41.5.

Badger, who is undefeated this season after winning at the Laughlin Invitational and the Las Vegas Invitational, was virtually uncontested in the sophomore girls race. The Centennial sophomore took the lead early and pulled away steadily throughout the race, winning in 15:28.8.

Marissa Suan of Palo Verde was a distant second in 16:16.9, and Alyse Vanek of Foothill finished third in 16:22.5.

“It was hard,” Badger said. “It’s always easier to push when there is someone in front of you.

“Our training is really good. We always know what we’re going to do, so we get better and better each time.”

The most competitive race of the day was the sophomore boys race. Martin Ponce of Tech, who won the freshman race in 2010, finished in 13:42.7 while holding off Centennial sophomores Jackson Carter (13:56.0) and George Espino (13:58.3).

“All I can say is that it was a great race,” Ponce said. “I’m still feeling a little sick; I felt sluggish. I tried running a little bit smarter. I know I have a problem going out too fast. I stayed with the group in the beginning and broke away the second time around.”

Tech coach Tony Kyriacou agreed.

“Martin is running smarter this year,” he said. “He’s learning how to run.

Team scores were tabulated with four different winners. Shadow Ridge took the boys freshmen and Centennial won the girls title. The sophomore races were won by Palo Verde’s boys and Coronado’s girls.

Mike O’Dea, race director of the event named for his father, was forced to change the course after heavy rain showers at Desert Breeze Park on Monday, but 477 athletes turned out for the largest field in the race’s history.

“We had to move the finish line due to standing water in the area of the finish line,” O’Dea said. “We reverted to running separate races this year. Last year we combined the (freshman and sophomore) races in order to speed up the meet, but the majority of coaches wanted separate races.

“With our largest-ever number of entries, it was probably just as well.”