With the cold breeze coming in and the seasons changing, the old sweltering heat of fall sports drifts away. One of these fall sports, cross-country, came to an end on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2025, at the SJS Sections Meet in Folsom, Calif. The section meet is the biggest meet of the year for cross-country, but also one of the hardest meets to get into, as you either have to place individually or your team has to place at the sub-section race in Frogtown.
This year at the section meet, there was the lowest number of Ripon runners ever, as very few qualified at sub-sections. Only one individual group qualified this year: frosh-soph girls. This is unique, since in years past both the varsity girls team and the varsity boys team made it to sections. But due to a combination of injured and sick runners at the sub-section course, neither varsity team was able to run at sections. However, two varsity runners did individually qualify and run at sections, and two JV boys qualified individually as well. Sophia Jung, a sophomore at Ripon High, is the varsity girls’ top runner and qualified for sections, as well as Moses Gomez, a senior at Ripon High. For JV boys, sophomores Darren Diaz and Gavin Ross ran at Folsom.
Jung said, “The course was hard, it was probably one of the hardest ones, but since it’s the last race I just tried my best.” Jung reflected on the season overall and said, “The best part of the season is running with my friends and making memories with them.”
The Folsom course is infamous in cross-country for being one of the hardest of the season, so any personal record or strong placement is impressive. Jung placed in the top half of runners with 26th out of 72. Diaz placed 14th overall for the sophomore section, and Ashourina Gonzalez, a sophomore at RHS and a frosh-soph runner, also placed 14th overall.
This year was Gomez’s last year running cross-country, so he was especially disappointed in his race results. He said, “I had a really bad day. I was feeling terrible. It kind of sucked because I didn’t have any of my friends, but I did get to talk to new people. I feel sad because I’m not going to have cross-country next year.”
Lots could be improved about the section meet, and things could have gone better than they did, but it is still impressive that four Ripon runners qualified individually for sections. Though few people made it to sections and morale was low, this year the cross-country team was full of friendships and happy memories, even if that wasn’t reflected by the last race of the season. Next year, runners can only hope to avoid as many injuries toward the end of the season and to have friendships as strong as those from this season.