Posted: Nov 07, 2021
COSTA MESA, Calif. – Linnea Sherman represented the SBCC women's cross country team on Friday, competing in the Southern California Cross Country Championships hosted by Orange Coast College at Mile Square Regional Park in Costa Mesa.
This particular 5K course was a late add due to permitting issues at the original meet location due to COVID-19. Because of this, there was no preview meet for the first time in recent memory (at least 15 years).
Scouting out the course to determine race strategy, it was decided to take the race out fast to ensure good positioning. It turned out a course feature 200m into the race wasn't as significant as expected and the fast start came back to haunt Linnea a bit in the second half.
"Linnea got out harder than she was used to and paid for it a bit." said head coach Scott Fickerson. "Her normal race strategy is to take a more conservative start and then she will steadily move forward through the field. In today's race, she went backwards by about 10 places from the first mile to the finish. She's a gutsy runner though and battled for her places and grabbed the qualifying spot we came for."
By virtue of her finish amongst the top individuals not on a qualifying team, Linnea's finishing place earned her a ticket to the CCCAA State Championship race at Woodward Park, Fresno in two weeks. Linnea finished the 5K race in 20:34 for 49th place in the 125 runner field.
Coach Fickerson added "Linnea is resilient. She will bounce back from this race stronger and head into Fresno looking for that great race she's been training for all season."
Danielle Salcedo of Canyons continued her unbeaten streak in 2021 winning the race in 17:55. Mt SAC handily won the team competition with 83 points over Riverside (122) and Glendale (132).
