MVHS Boys Take 3rd At Mt. SAC Invitational

By MORDECHAI YADEGAR II

The Progress

The Moapa Valley High School Boys Cross Country team travelled to Walnut, California last week to compete in the 74th annual Mt. SAC Invitational meet held on Friday, Oct. 21. The Pirate team ended up taking 3rd place in the meet.

Mt. SAC is one of the biggest invitationals with the toughest 3 mile course in California. Mt. San Antonio College has hosted this meet for 4 generations. The first year of this esteemed race was in 1948 and it has been held each year all the way up to 2022. This was the first time in MVHS history that the boys cross country program competed in this event.

There were 429 total schools with 9,391 total athletes competing and thousands of spectators watching. The atmosphere was amazing, everyone cheered and congratulated each other when they crossed the line. It was definitely a meet to remember.

On Thursday, October 20 the Pirate team set off on a 5 hour car ride to stay the night in a hotel and prepare for the big race they had ahead of them. Around 9am on Friday the team traveled to the official course. Numerous team camps were set up in the designated parking garage at the college while races were happening on the course.

There were 45 races being run back to back that day making the course inaccessible to preview and walk. The Pirate boys were registered for race 23, the D4 Varsity Yellow race. A total of 32 schools, and 165 runners were in this race. The top 15 individual runners to cross the line first would earn a medal. The top 3 teams earned medals and a team plaque.

At exactly 2:02 pm the race would start. Warm up and check ins for the race were held on the practice field for Mt. SAC and at 1:57 the runners were ushered to the start line. Spectators and athletes from other races were all lined up along both sides of the course ready to cheer on the runners.

The gun went off and the race was on. MVHS senior Marcus Shambaugh had a great start and was out front with the rest of the team trailing. At the mile one marker the team’s points position placed them in 5th. This mile of the course was almost completely flat consisting of two valley loops. Everyone’s 1st mile times were the quickest.

The notorious Switchbacks and Poop Out Hill were incorporated in the course for mile two. That is where big moves were made by the Pirate boys. Isaac Thompson moved up 32 positions in mile two. The rest of the team moved up as well. This placed the team in 4th place at mile marker two.
Mile three consisted of one more monstrous hill and even more moves were made by Pirate team members. William Anderson and Thompson continued to move up in placements.

The finish was crowded with spectators. Crossing the line first for the Pirate Boys was Mordechai Yadegar II. He placed 10th in the race with a time of 16:46. Following Yadegar was Shambaugh (16:54), Thompson (17:38), Anderson (18:04), Gavin Hendricks (18:25), Joseph Barnes (18:36), and Hal Thompson (18:53).

The Pirate boys ran a strong race on one of the toughest courses out there and were awarded with a 3rd place plaque in their division.

Later that day the Pirate boys celebrated their accomplishment with a team dinner and swimming in the hotel pool. The next morning they made their way back to Moapa Valley.

The MVHS cross country programs will travel to Veterans Memorial Park in Boulder City on Friday, October 28 to compete in the Southern 3A Regional race.