Whann, Mackovic, Day earn all-league honors

Oak Ridge's varsity cross country teams placed in the middle of the pack at the Sierra Foothill League championship meet held at William Jessup University on Saturday. The varsity boys placed third behind Jesuit and Davis, while the varsity girls' team took fourth after St. Francis, Whitney and Davis. Dax Whann and Austin Mackovic had top-10 finishes for the varsity boys on the three-mile course, as Whann placed fourth in 15 minutes, 16 seconds and Mackovic was eighth in 15:47.5. They were first-team all-league finishers. Also scoring for the varsity boys were Luca Miller (12th, 15:57.3), Cooper Smith (22nd, 16:16.4) and Filip Kruckenberg (26th, 16:22.9). Miller was a second-team all-league performer. Maya Day led the varsity girls' team, as she posted a time of 17:56.2, which put her in eighth place. Second-team all-league runners were Sutton Paulsen and Elise Sale, who ran 13th (18:28) and 20th (19:06.2), respectively. Other scoring runners were Loti Boucher (26th, 19:29.9) and Sky Buu (28th, 19:38.7). At the junior varsity level, the Oak Ridge boys' placed fifth. Oscar Piercy finished the two-mile course in 10:40.4 and in eighth place to lead the way. Dillon Carlsen ran 13th in 10:51.7 and he was followed by Kabir Agarwal (23rd, 11:12.9), Rob Anderson (31st, 11:17.4) and Jet Whann (73rd, 12:33.8). Serapha O'Sullivan led the JV girls, as she placed eighth in 12:32.1. Penny Siegfried ran 10th in 12:40.1 and was followed by Hana Basit (13:54) and Stephanie Stringer (65th, 17:00.9). "Illnesses and injuries have set back the performances of our teams the last few weeks," Oak Ridge coach Rob Fairley said. "We are hoping to get athletes who have been sick or injured back to training with the team this week." The next meet for the Oak Ridge cross country teams is subsections at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds at Angels Camp on Saturday.