Dana Hills’ Evan Noonan will be off and running to start his senior year Saturday night in the Woodbridge Classic cross country meet at Great Park in Irvine.
Noonan was last season’s Orange County boys cross country runner of the year and Gatorade’s boys cross country runner of the year in California. He repeated as a CIF Southern Section (Division 3) and state champion.
In track and field, Noonan was the CIF state champion in the 3,200 meters. He was Orange County’s only first–place finisher at the state meet.
After the high school season ended Noonan went on to victory in the Nike Outdoor Invitational at the University of Oregon.
The Woodbridge Classic, in its 43rd year, starts Friday at Great Park with racing for the Red and White divisions. The Blue and Gold divisions, the meet’s higher divisions, will compete Saturday. The rated races are Saturday evening. The sweepstakes race for the boys elite runners is set to start at 9:54 p.m.
For a guy who values sleep as much as Noonan does, a 9:54 p.m. race isn’t exactly the greatest, but he is ready to go and see what he can do in his first competition of the 2024 cross country season.
His goals for Saturday?
“Obviously to win,” he said this week. “And to PR (set a personal record). But I don’t know how it’s going to go.”
Noonan set his cross country 3-mile course personal record of 13 minutes, 39.90 seconds at last season’s South Coast League finals at Irvine Regional Park. His best time of his sophomore year was 14:21.40 in the South Coast League finals on the same course. That was 40 seconds faster than his best of his sophomore year.
Noonan finished first in the Woodbridge Classic sweepstakes race last year with a time of 13:41.30.
It’s difficult to identify the greatest in Orange County distance-running history. The 1970s had Eric Hulst of Laguna Beach and Ralph Serna of Loara, both two-time cross country state champions. More recently Brea Olinda’s Austin Tamagno and JSerra’s Anthony Grover were two-time state champions, and there have been some outstanding runners in between.
Rich Gonzalez of PrepCalTrack.com figures that Noonan might wind up being better than any of them.
“He could become the best kid in California high school history,” Gonzalez said.
“When Evan was a sophomore he was showing improvement rates that were off the charts,” Gonzalez said. “You see how fluid he is when he runs, how he’s very smooth and very light on his feet. He’s physically so gifted and he’s not been over-raced.”
Noonan doesn’t “chase times” – that is, he doesn’t put a mark in front of him and go crazy trying to get there. He does have his goals, but prefers to keep them to himself.
“I have three goals for this year,” he said. “But the problem with sharing goals is they become targets for other people, so I’d rather not share them.”
Whatever those goals are, Noonan is likely to get there and that journey starts Saturday.
NOTES
Among the many teams at the Woodbridge Classic will be last year’s national champions, Herriman of Utah, in the boys competition and Air Academy of Colorado in the girls. …
JSerra’s boys and girls teams will be top contenders in the Woodbridge Classic and will be top contenders for CIF-SS Division 4 championships in November. …
The Durango Fall Classic, a prestigious tournament in girls volleyball, is Friday and Saturday in Las Vegas. Orange County teams in it are: Foothill, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos and Mater Dei. Other CIF-SS teams in the tournament include Marymount of Los Angeles, Mira Costa, Oaks Christian, Redondo and Sierra Canyon. Cathedral Catholic, the CIF San Diego Section’s top team, is in it as is Prestonwood Christian of Plano, Texas, the No. 1 team in MaxPreps’ national rankings. …
Many Orange County football teams will not play games next week. It’s the perfect week for teams in six-team leagues to take their “bye week,” falling after the conclusion of nonleague games and just before the start of league play. …
The CIF-SS Champions for Character honorees from Orange County schools are Daniela Borruel of Sunny Hills in the student-athletes group; coaches Charlie Breneman of Edison boys soccer, Trevor Holton of Fullerton softball, Keith Nighswonger of Sunny Hills boys and girls water polo, Jenevieve Nixon of Godinez boys and girls volleyball and Robert Torribio of Newport Harbor boys basketball; Santa Margarita president Andy Sulick in the administrator group; Saddleback trainer Cesar Garza; Orange County basketball and volleyball official Bryan Speer; and Sunny Hills in the schools category. …
The Newport Rib Company has been a constant and visible supporter of high school sports in Orange County for a very long time. The restaurant celebrates its 40th anniversary in October by providing 20 percent off all of its sales Oct. 1-20 to various charities including high school sports.
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