7th Annual Jackie Henderson Memorial Post-Meet Story and Results
by Coach Gustavo Ibarra
A massive heat wave gripped the region earlier in the week but it let off today and the only heat we found was on the feet of the harriers at the 7th Annual Jackie Henderson Memorial Cross Country Invitational on Saturday, September 12th, 2026 at North Monterey County High School in Castroville. By the end of the day, we had the most individuals ever cracking our top 25 meet records, a near miss at the girls and boys individual course records, and some great team battles. On to the details!
Throughout the day fans were able to meet and greet Thomas Valles of McFarland USA fame. He was the top runner for that legendary team depicted in the hit Hollywood film. That set the stage for a great meet!
In the open 3 mile race, Danny Tapia, class of 2004 at North Monterey County, who ran professionally and represented the United States in the world championships marathon in Russia years ago, once again took a shot at the course record and came close by running 14:45 to kick off the day which ended up being the 2nd fastest of the day!! Andrea Villegas (pictured middle), who also prepped at North Monterey County, won the women’s open race after a fine career at Hartnell and St. Mary’s College.
The middle schoolers then took a turn on a 2 mile course and had smiles all over!
The frosh/soph girls kicked off the high school portion of the meet on the 3 mile layout and it was Pierce Culbertson (10-Aptos) running away with the win in 19:22. Chloe America (10-St. Francis) 20:11 and Sanvi Pragasam (10-St Francis) 20:20 settled for 2nd and 3rd but set their team up for a dominating win! St. Francis put 5 girls in the top 10 and scored a measly 17 points for the win! Evergreen Valley (101) and King City (108) were a distant 2nd and 3rd but were rewarded with team medals.
The frosh/soph boys were next, with the largest field of the meet, and Lucas Mckenna (9-St. Francis) made his high school debut in fine style winning a major invitational in a very nice frosh time of 16:16, making him the 3rd fastest 9th grader ever on the course! He also set the stage for his dominating team win! Mason Natividad (10-Gilroy) 16:25 and Zach Fitch (10-Aptos) 16:34 snagged the last podium spots. The team race was not close as St. Francis (57) out-paced Whitney (107) and Leland (141) as our team medalists.
The JV Girls had Betsaida Del Cid Munoz (11-Alvarez) take them out hard early on but she had to settle for 4th as the St. Francis' party kept going with individual and team wins! Leading them was Danica HIlker (St Francis-11) and Elise Sondag (St. Francis-10) in 1st and 2nd at 20:25 and 20:50. Close for 3rd was Balery Del Cid Munoz (11- Alvarez) who led her team with a very nice 20:53 showing with 4 of her teammates in the top 8! But, that wasn’t enough as St. Francis put 5 in the top 16 for the 35-36 one-point win! Alvarez had the better top 4 but their 5th runner was 20th which ultimately cost them the win. Whitney snagged the last team medals with 55 pts.
The JV Boys changed things up a bit with a different team winner. Individually, it was Daniel Rubio Garcia (10-Alvarez), who was inspired by his JV girl teammates and dominated with a 16:01 win, just missing a sub 16:00 time. Benjamin Joseph (11-Evergreen Valley) settled for 2nd in 16:18 while Aaron Justo (11-Mt. Pleasant), who had done much of the earlier work leading the race, snagged the last podium spot in 16:20. It would be Alisal who would break up St. Francis' streak of team wins with a 61 point win with Evergreen Valley and Alvarez in a close 2 point 92-94 decision for 2nd and 3rd with team medals. St. Francis was 4th at 97 points, 3 shy of a team medal.
Brinley leading early on Hanna takes over
Varsity Girls Top 10
Brinley, Kaylee, Iris Prienna, Hanna, Maddie Eva, Anna, Kayla, Maya
Coming in we thought the varsity girls would steal the show today and we were right! Individually and as teams, we had a great mix of meet veterans and some top newcomers ready for an early season clash. Brinley Pickett (11-St. Francis) was our defending champion while St. Francis' team had won 3 titles in a row. But, and it’s a big BUT, we knew today might be a little different. Brinley came out strong in defense of her title and really pushed the pace hard early on, on pace to break the course record! She fought valiantly but it wouldn’t be as Hanna Shehorn (12-Scotts Valley), our pre-meet favorite, would make us look smart as she made her move mid race leaving the chase pack and never looked back BLASTING A 16:54 3 mile, good for #2 all time on the course and winning by 20 seconds!! She missed the course record of 16:48 by only 6 seconds, which was set by the legendary Ashlyn Boothby, also from Scotts Valley back in 2023. This sets up Hanna as one of the top runners in California with that kind of performance here! Maddie Goss (11-Woodcreek) ran a super smart race being patient in the chase pack and then up for 2nd as others faltered and was rewarded with a very fine 17:14, good for #3 all-time!! Prienna Chavez (12-Hollister), had the most experience on this course, and today that paid off big time as she had her best day ever at 17:24, good for #5 all time on the course! Brinley would settle for 4th today after her win last year but was rewarded by pushing the pace early on with a new course personal best at 17:28, good for 6th best ever! Kaylee Smith (11-Whitney), would lead the charge for her team favorite here with a very fine 17:29 good for 8th fastest ever. Iris Patten (11-Pacific Collegiate) upset some favorites with a nice 17:30, 9th fastest ever! That’s SIX girls in the top TEN all time on the course! Oh my! Others showing well included Eva Soto (12-Whitney) 17:37, 11th all-time, Anna Conca (11-Monte Vista Christian) 17:49, 16th all-time, Kayla Gold (10-Whitney) 17:49, 16th all-time, and Maya Wastie (12-St Francis), who did much of the early work for the chase pack and was rewarded with a medal and an 18:05, 26th fastest ever. A total of 9 girls made the top 25 all time!
Woodcreek (3rd), Whitney (1st), St. Francis (2nd)
On the team front, we knew it would be a GREAT battle between state powers Whitney and St. Francis (Mountain View). Whitney was coming off a STATE TITLE in Division 2, a first for their team after placing 2nd and 3rd in previous years while St. Francis also had state podium hardware recently and had won the Henderson meet 3 years running. Whitney had the team time course record (90:04) from 2023 but it was St. Francis who had been winning the meets. Today, the tables turned as Whitney pulled off the super close 55-61 point win over St. Francis!! It was a great team battle as Whitney went 5-6-8-10-25 for their scoring 5 while St. Francis went 4-9-12-16-20. Although St. Francis looked better at the #1 and key #5 scorer, it was Whitney pulling off the true team win with 3 girls ahead of St. Francis’ 2nd and 4 girls ahead of their 3rd. That was the difference. Woodcreek was a distant 3rd with 141 points for the last team medals making this a true 2 horse race. Keep an eye on both of these squads, Whitney just went 90:54 while St. Francis went 91:56 in their team times, close to all time bests! They should be players once again at the regional and state level.
Jasper Bolante (Carmel) and Luis Perez (Hollister) push hard early on
Josh Landon (Whitney) makes his move for the win!
Top 10 Varsity Boys
Zane, Jasper, Noah, Johan, Josh, Luis, Davis, Jacob, Nain, Henry
For the boys we knew the door opened a bit with some graduation losses, especially to the defending champions from Willow Glen, after their amazing course record run last year of 76:57! The strength of this race would be on the individual front while several teams were in the running. Jasper Bolante (12-Carmel) was not messing around and took the race out extremely fast, with fans wondering if they could hold it. Luis Perez (12-Hollister) also showed no fear as he pushed him on his shoulder early on. But, as many times happens, it’s someone in the chase pack biding their time who eventually comes out on top. Today that was Josh Landon (11-Whitney) who made his move halfway through the race and never looked back storming away, like Hanna did in the girls race, to a convincing 14:38 win, #2 all-time and only 9 seconds off the amazing course record of 14:29 set by Aydon Stefanopoulos (Los Gatos) back in 2024 and fastest junior ever!! Luis was rewarded with the best race of his life in 14:45, #3 all time ahead of legendary name Eli Fitchen-Young (course best 14:46 in 2023)! Oh my!! Put Luis on the map! Johan Coss (11-Evergreen Valley), our pre-meet favorite, made a big move in the hills but came up just short in his kick at 14:59, only the 10th guy to ever break 15:00 on the course! Jasper was rewarded for his bravery in 4th at 15:12, #19 all-time! Noah Talley (12-Willow Glen) and his teammate Zane Stewart (11-Willow Glen) were part of last year's course record team and came back today to get personal bests at 15:13 and 15:15, good for #22 and #25 all time! Rounding out the top 10 medalists were Davis Pisoni (12-Palma) 15:18, Jacob Martinez (11-Evergreen Valley) 15:22, Nain Garcia (12-Watsonville) 15:24, and super frosh Henry Bartle (9-Carmel) 15:24, who broke the 9th grade course record by 43 seconds!!! Watch out upper-classmen, he’s coming! A total of 6 guys made the top 25 all-time! A total of 15 between girls and boys!
Whitney (3rd), St. Francis (1st), Evergreen Valley (3rd)
On the team front, Alisal was our slight pre-meet favorites and was right in the mix early on but faltered late when their #3 man lost his shoe and had to be pulled out with a massive foot blister forming. St. Francis, our next favorite, took advantage and finished best, coming away with a 107-113 win over fast closing Evergreen Valley. It was a nice true team win for St. Francis, considering they didn’t have anyone in the top 15 individually with their top guy in 18th, but they had a great 20 second spread from their 1st to their 5th runner sealing the win. Whitney would hold Alisal off 134-139 for the final team medals. Watch Alisal later on when all guys are there, they would have been in the mix for the win today with all finishing. Willow Glen, our defending champs and course record holders, were 5th while Carmel, with their new young star, was 6th. Hollister in 7th was missing one of their top 3 guys to illness and one of their other top guys was a little off today so watch out for them down the road as they click on all cylinders. Luis up-front with their other two up-there could make for a strong team. Evergreen Valley ended up with the best team time of 79:19 good for 5th best ever on the course while St. Francis (79:46) and Whitney (79:49) were just off of their team time course bests. Not bad for a re-building year on the boys side.
Thank you to Coach Cornejo for the meet pictures! Check them out!
Thank you to everyone who came and helped remember Jackie!
We hope to see you all in 2027!!
RIP Coach Jackie Henderson
July 25th, 1989-July 14th, 2017
Jacklyn was fatally struck while visiting family by an SUV while running in Huntington, NY on July 14th, 2017. She was 27 years old. A native of Huntington, Jacklyn graduated from Oyster Bay High School before attending Hunter College, where she was a three-year member of the Hawks cross country and track and field teams. A talented distance runner, Jacklyn was a member of two CUNYAC Championship cross country teams (2010 and 2011), earning first-place in the conference championship meet in 2010 to take CUNYAC Runner of the Year honors. Jacklyn was a six-time conference All-Star and helped the Hunter distance medley relay team to a CUNYAC title at the 2010-2011 Indoor Championships. She graduated from Hunter in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology, her childhood passion. She was a biology teacher and cross country and track and field coach at North Monterey County High School in Castroville, CA at the time of her passing. At North Monterey County High she quickly became one of the most popular teachers on campus. Hundreds of her students, athletes, and fellow staff members quickly became very fond of her. She had a great passion for life, adventures, travel, and making everyone she met feel complete and unconditional love. She was extremely family and friend oriented. She lived every day as if it were her last and made lasting impacts on those she has left behind. Her legacy will live on with all those she touched in life. Our heartfelt thoughts are with Jacklyn's family and friends, as well as her teammates, students, athletes, and colleagues. #RUNLIKEJACKIE