All-District Girls Cross Country: Sonora’s Land in a class by herself

A few years ago at Curtis Creek Elementary School, Cassi Land and her classmates were asked to run a mile.

The athletic Land played basketball and other sports but didn’t really consider herself a runner. That changed in a matter of minutes after she easily blew away the field.

“Her P.E. teacher came up to us and said, ‘Do you know (Cassi) is really fast?’” said her father, Ryan Land. “I said, ‘No, she’s a basketball player. She’s never run.’”

A few months later, her parents entered her in a youth meet in Fresno, where she won both of her middle-distance races.

Flash forward to November’s CIF State Cross Country Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno. The Sonora High School freshman sped to a ninth-place finish in the Division IV race, earning a coveted Top-10 medal.

Her time of 18 minutes, 39 seconds was better than any Stanislaus District female runner in any division competing in Fresno. She also was the first freshman in the Division IV race to cross the finish line.

For her efforts, Land was named The Bee’s Stanislaus District Cross Country Girls Runner of the Year.

The tall, soft-spoken Land has made quite an impact in her short time as a Wildcat. She’s already run the fastest times of any Sonora female runner at mainstay courses like Frogtown, Woodward Park, Stanford and Folsom, according to her coach, Glenn Bass.

Bass said he was stunned the first time he saw her run in eighth grade.

“She’s been absolutely incredible,” he said. “She came on as a freshman and promptly went out and started replacing all of the No. 1 girls on our top 10 times list on every course. It’s absolutely amazing.”

After winning every Mother Lode League meet – four in the regular season and the championship – Land ran to victory in the Sac-Joaquin Sub-Section meet at Frogown in Angels Camp, beating talented Bret Harte freshman Kaela Dishion by 11 seconds.

The two run for Foothill Gold Running and Track Club, whose coach, Darren Holman, once held the Stanislaus District State Meet record when competing for Sonora High in the early 1990s.

It should be a great rivalry to watch.

“We work out together a lot,” Land said of Dishion. “We’re good friends, and we push each other. In workouts, we run together. But in the races, we race.”

There were no freshman jitters when Land arrived at the Willow Hill course in Folsom for the Section Meet.

“I wasn’t that nervous,” she said. “The first straightaway, you go all out and then settle in.”

Her winning time of 18:51 would have placed her tied for seventh among the combined 365 varsity runners in all five divisions.

The State Meet was a little different. Because of the 12:15 p.m. start, Land was able to sleep in her bed in Sonora the night before and travel to Fresno the morning of the race.

When she arrived, she quickly understood the magnitude of the event.

“I was shocked by all the people,” she said. “I was nervous.”

Land shook the butterflies and got off to a fast start. Heading into Mile 2, she was in the top 10 among more than 190 runners. She remained in the lead pack to earn a medal, finishing 1:04 behind the winner, Malibu senior Caroline Pietrzyk.

“It was good,” Land said. “I set myself up good (in the first mile), so I could just hang right there.”

Last month, Land more than hung in there at the USA Track and Field National Cross Country Meet in Myrtle Beach, S.C., finishing sixth among nearly 400 competitors.

Land said she runs six days a week, putting in around 35 miles that includes eight-milers on Sunday mornings. There’s considerable work involving hills, speed work and 400-meter repeats.

“She does them all without complaint and meets her target times,” Bass said.

In the immediate future, Land will continue playing basketball for Sonora’s freshman team, run track and field this spring and prepare for a busy club season this summer.

Her goals for next cross country season?

“I need to improve on my second mile,” she said. “I want to PR and do better at state.”

There’s no reason to believe she can’t.

This story was originally published January 19, 2015 at 11:33 AM with the headline "All-District Girls Cross Country: Sonora’s Land in a class by herself."