Rennick and Farrell win SLO County Invite, AG boys and SLO girls earn titles

Posted: Oct 25, 2012 6:18 PM by Andrew Masuda
Updated: Nov 1, 2012 9:30 PM

The annual San Luis Obispo County Cross Country Invitational at Laguna Lake proved to be memorable for Aidan Farrell and Michaela Rennick. Farrell, a Paso Robles senior, won the boys race with a time of 16:11, while Rennick took first in the girls race in 18:54. It marked the first cross country win in both of their careers.

The 3.1 mile course forced athletes from nine San Luis Obispo County schools to run directly into the wind at times.

Farrell crossed the finish line in 16:11. "I've never won a race, never won a cross country race so being able to win this one was very exciting for me. What a thrill. I'm really, really pleased with how it went," said the Paso Robles High senior.

Arroyo Grande High's Trevor Cowan finished second in the boys race in 16:19, while San Luis Obispo's Joshua Ernst came in third in 16:23.

With five runners in the top ten (Cowan-2, Jonathan Corley-4th, Jake Server-6, Blake Maule-9 and John Miles-10), the AG High boys cross country team edged for the overall team title 31 to 33. The Bearcats placed four runners in the top ten (Farrell-1, Zach Chamberlain-5, Matthew Kwiatkowski-7 and Nick Stair-8). San Luis Obispo finished third with 79, followed by Morro Bay (95), Atacadero (126), Templeton (144), Nipomo (144) and Mission Prep (168). James Sever of Coastal Christian also ran in the field.

Rennick pulled away down the stretch in the girls race to capture her first-ever title. The San Luis Obispo High senior won in 18:54 to break through a mental and physical barrier. "I haven't really had the right mental aspect and I've been worrying about that so much. Finally I just got this Muhammed Ali quote in my head of 'I'm going to show them how great I can be'. I kind of just thought that at the line and that helped," said Rennick.

AG's Jocelyn Reynolds finished second in 19:04, while Templeton sophomore Veronica Russell came in third in 19:06. SLO High's Olivia Carmo finished fourth in 19:19 followed by AG's Angela Gemignani in 19:21.

The Tigers won the girls team title with 37 points after placing three runners in the top 9. Arroyo Grande finished second with 51 points, followed by Paso Robles with 79, Templeton with 84, Morro Bay with 143, Nipomo came in sixth with 151, Atascadero placed seventh with 226 points and Mission finished eighth with 267 points.