James Lambert
September 20, 2026 12:27 PM
The Union Catholic girls’ cross-country squad, ranked No. 1 in the nation, produced a very strong runner-up finish at the 45th Woodbridge Classic on Saturday night at the Great Park in Irvine, California.
Competing at less than full strength against many of the top teams in the country, the Vikings finished with a flurry to secure the second-place finish in the Bob Day Sweepstakes race with 131 points, 27 behind the winner Crater of Oregon, who finished with 104. Crater, who came into this meet unranked, will surely vault near the top when the national rankings are updated. Jserra Catholic, ranked No. 9 nationally, finished third with 219, No. 11 St. Francis was fourth with 247, and No. 3 Buchanan placed fifth with 285.
Racing on the lightning-quick 3-mile layout at the Great Park, the Vikings averaged a blistering 5-runner average of 16:45, a 7 runner average of 17:01, and a 1-5 compression of 52 seconds.
UC was in seventh place, 226 points behind Crater, after the first mile, but the entire pack picked up the pace and made a huge push in the second mile to move into second-place, 81 points behind Crater, and then closed faster than any other team to narrow the gap on Crater to just 27 points.
Senior Cayleigh Kaiser led the charge for the Vikings by placing 8th in 16:11!!! Sophomore Harper Telesca was 30th in 16:37, senior Kayla Devine was 42nd in 16:52, sophomore Abbey Robisky was 48th in 16:59, and sophomore Eden Solorzano was 54th in 17:02. UC’s 6-7 runners were junior Saffa Ellis (17:27) and sophomore Jia Jain (17:53).
Yes, those times are correct. We told you it was a super fast course! When this amount of talent gets on course like this, jaw-dropping times come with it.
It’s obviously very important to note here that Union Catholic ran without All-American Paige Sheppard and Sophia Thompson. Sheppard had a very long track season that went into August, highlighted by her victory in the 800 at the U.S. U-20 Championships and a berth in the final at both the U.S. Senior National Championships and the U-20 World Championships. With an XC season that will extend into December, Sheppard is training her way through the first month of this season before she makes her debut.
When Union Catholic, who finished third at the Nike National Championships last December, runs at full strength, the Vikings will be tough for any team in the country to beat. They are seeking to become the first girls’ team from NJ to be crowned national champions, and they have the firepower and the drive to make history.
In the boys’ Doug Speck Sweepstakes race, Union Catholic, ranked No. 2 in NJ, fnished 22nd in the 37-team field. The Vikings back in 30th at the mile, but moved up to 27th at 2 miles, and picked off 5 more team in the final mile. Southlake Carroll of Texas finished first with 115 points, 26 ahead of No. 19 Riverton.
UC’s scoring 5 had an average of 14:58, and an impressive split of 36 seconds. and their 7 runners averaged 15:10.
The 7 runners for UC were senior Danny Kuran, 74th in 14:39, senior Jayden Aine, 10th in 14:52, junior Nathan Simonich, 109th in 14:53, senior Nick Frank, 154th in 15:08, senior Finn Riely, 176th in 15:15, senior Quintin Clemons, 182nd in 15:16, and junior Jeremiah Shepherd, who ran 16:00.