Buoyed by the return of Tri-Valley League MVP Caroline Pietrzyk and a host of runners who garnered honorable mention honors in league competition last season, the Malibu High School cross country team is targeting a sprint up the league standings as the fall season gets underway.
After two events so far, the 24th Seaside Invitational at San Buenaventura State Beach and the Fastback Shootout at Mount San Antonio College, first-year coach Shawn Waco sees promising signs out of his runners.
“I’m very excited to be coaching this team,” Waco said. “We have a lot of hopefuls. They are looking good on the training. I have big hopes for them.”
Leading the way on the MHS girls’ squad is Pietrzyk, 16, who enjoyed a stellar sophomore campaign in 2012. After being named the Tri-Valley League Most Valuable Player and tak ing third in the CIF Division IV finals, Pietrzyk put a feather in her cap with a sixth-place finish at the Division IV California State Cross Country Championships.
Joining Pietrzyk on the MHS girls’ squad will be top runners in senior Emma London, junior Carmen Flood and sophomores Caitlin Myers and Madeline Ward. Flood and Myers were named honorable mention All-TVL last fall.
Leading the boys’ team will be promising junior Alec Wilimovsky, who played water polo last year but made the switch to cross country over the summer. Wilimovsky, 16, ran a 16:31.4 on the three-mile course at Seaside and 11:24.87 at Mt. SAC.
“It seems like it’s going to be a fun season,” Wilimovsky said. “Because of my commitments to triathlons I decid ed to run cross country. Also, track was so much fun as a team with all the races. I thought it might be a little more fun to do cross country too.”
Along with Wilimovsky, seniors Dyer Pettijohn, Aiden Pascucci, Erik Rosenberg, Linus Gordon and sopho more Khoi Prakasim form a strong boys’ team for the Sharks. Pettijohn, Pascucci and Rosenberg return as TVL honorable mention recipients.
Pietrzyk, who was named the 2012-13 Malibu Times Female Athlete of the Year, has already made a flying start to the new season. At the Seaside Invitational she finished second over all with a time of 16:52.4. Then, last Saturday at the Fastback Shootout at Mt. SAC, she knocked a full 30 sec onds off her time from one year ago on the 1.9-mile course. Pietrzyk’s time of 11:38.19 was the second-fastest of the day in a field of 827 female runners. A year ago, she ran the same course in 12:11.50 and finished 16th overall in a field of 842 runners. Senior Sarah Baxter of Simi Valley, one of the best runners in the country, had the fastest time this past Saturday when she fin ished in 10:43.12.
Pietrzyk feels she and the team will benefit this season from the knowl edge and training methods of their new coach Waco, who ran his first Los Angeles Marathon this past spring. The coach spends a lot of time running and training with the team himself.
“I think he’s really awesome because he runs with us and he keeps a really good pace,” Pietrzyk said. “He’s able to tell you why you are running, what you are doing wrong and what you need to work on. He knows about a lot of different track workouts and runs we normally don’t do. We do a lot more trail runs now.”
Waco loves to run, but isn’t sure what his athletes think of his hands-on approach to training with them.
“I don’t know if they like it but I think they do,” he said chuckling. “But it’s better than if I sit. It helps me kind of gauge where they are. I like being right there in the trenches with them.”
Following the Woodbridge Invitational, Malibu has its first Tri- Valley League match set for Wed., Sept. 25 at 3:30 p.m. at La Reina High School.
