Clovis North’s Moffett running with joy – signs with Vanderbilt, dominates TRAC final

Twenty-four hours of joy for Clovis North High’s Lauren Moffett had her sign a national letter of intent with Vanderbilt University on Wednesday before winning the Tri-River Athletic Conference girls cross country title with ease Thursday at Woodward Park.

“I feel a fire in me and no one’s seen it yet,” said Moffett, who coasted for the last half of the 3.1-mile race, actually smiling in her final strides while winning by 22 seconds with a time of 18:02.7.

She’ll be favored to repeat her Central Section Division I title on Thursday at the same venue. She won it as a junior in 17:45 before being named The Bee’s Runner of the Year.

Good times were experienced by many this week in the section, which delivered arguably its most distinguished class in the history of the fall early signing period.

No fewer than 57 section athletes signed letters. The five-school Clovis Unified District accounted for 25.

That included a whopping nine by Buchanan, which offered range in addition to depth with five sports represented – Hannah Waller (Oregon) for track and field, Donovan Mitchell (Wake Forrest) and Bree Wellington (Metro State) for basketball, Jordan Arruda (Fresno State) and Grant Gambrell (Oregon State) for baseball, Tanner Olmos (Eastern Michigan) for swimming and Rachael Arkelian (Fresno Pacific), Danielle Rodriguez (Stanislaus State) and Brook Watts (Biola) for volleyball.

Waller, last spring’s state 400-meter gold medalist, is joining an NCAA championship program.

Former Clovis star Jenna Prandini, with one of the strongest performances all-time in NCAA track and field finals, powered the Ducks to the women’s title in June with a first (100) and two seconds (200, long jump) as a junior before ending her college career by signing a professional contract with Puma.

But Waller made this clear: “Jenna had no influence in my choice of Oregon. I can see myself being really successful and making a name for myself there. More so than following her footsteps, I want to make my own.”

It came down to Oregon and USC for Waller, who also visited Arizona State and UCLA: “The leading factor was my heart. Everything just felt right at Oregon, everything felt connected. I didn’t need to see all of their uniforms and championships. I just had that special feeling.”

Clovis Unified signees also included Clovis’ Hayden Mammen to Kansas State and Clovis West’s Peter Kuest to BYU for golf, and Clovis North’s Matthew Fraizer to Arizona for baseball.

It was a banner week for girls runners in the section.

In addition to Moffett, among long-distance runners, Clovis’ Mikayla Sodersten signed with Oregon State and Central Valley Christian’s Gabby Satterlee with Baylor.

Fresno State would like to think it struck a bonanza in men’s basketball by landing Roosevelt center Bryson Williams, who honored a pledge he made long ago to the Bulldogs.

Immanuel point guard Colin Slater, The Bee’s co-Player of the Year last winter, signed with Tulane.

Among Tulare County athletes advancing their careers, in addition to Satterlee, Mt. Whitney four-year outfielder Jordan Prendiz is going to UCLA and Tulare Western’s Kelcey Carrasco (softball) and Mallory Korenwinder (swimming) are packing for Michigan State and Arizona.

Buchanan sweeps titles – The Bears dominated the team competition at the TRAC cross country finals.

Buchanan went 1-2-3 with senior Tom Pritsky (15:59.4), junior Stewart Fernandez (16:13.3) and sophomore Hayden Hansen (16:25.3) to score 29 points while beating Clovis by 24 for the boys crown.

And the Bears placed 2-3-4-5 with Meagen Lowe (18:24.3), Skylar Steenburgh (18:39.3), Katie Nili (18:42.9) and Clare Hernandez (18:44.0) to score 25 points while successfully defending its title with a girls team ranked 17th in the state. Clovis North, ranked 15th in the state, was second with 40 points.

Moffett is hoping for a top-three finish at the CIF State D-I Championship on Nov. 28 at Woodward after placing eighth as a junior.

She also visited Syracuse, but no one had a chance for the honor student after she first visited Vanderbilt of the Southeast Conference in Nashville, Tenn. And that included the Ivy League’s Dartmouth, which not only asked her to visit as the Big Green already has in the fold Moffett’s older sister, Leigh, another former Bee Runner of the Year.

But little sister declined: “I loved the (Vanderbilt) team; I loved the coaches. It’s a perfect fit for me.”

She and Sodersten finished 1-2 in last year’s section D-I final. But another expected duel failed to come to fruition when Sodersten – fighting a shin injury – hobbled to a seventh-place finish in 18:51.5.

Just five weeks ago, Sodersten clocked 17:50.9 on the same course while placing third in the Asics Clovis Invitational – one of the top prep meets in the West.

“I expect to have one bad meet a season,” said Sodersten, who also visited Boise State, Baylor and Arizona State, and declined several other offers, including UCLA and USC. “And that meet was today.”

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 8:05 PM with the headline "Clovis North’s Moffett running with joy – signs with Vanderbilt, dominates TRAC final."