Charlotte Castelli sprints her way through the competition
With dedication and hard work Division 2 Central Section Cross Country Champion, Charlotte Castelli has led in races since her freshman year in CIF championships for both Cross Country and Track. She is the premier long distance specialist of all Bearcat runners and an obvious choice for silver Bearcathlete.
Castelli won the 2021 CIF Central Section Championship for the 5,000m race with a time of 18:46.9, placing first in one of Cross Country’s most “important” and competitive races, with hundreds of runners.
This spring Castelli continued to excel by placing second in the Mountain League Championships in both the mile and 2-mile. No other athlete has been able to surpass Castelli with her personal records of 5:19.51 minutes, placing her sixth in the 1600m for track and fourth in the 3200m with a time of 11:38.74 minutes.
She has a number of other achievements in athletic career. During her first year on the Cross Country team, she ran her first 4,000m in 17:04.9 minutes, which would place her in the top 4 of varsity as a freshman. Senior year, Castelli placed first at the 2021 Morro Bay XC Invite womens 3 mile with a time of 19:11 minutes, and in Track placed first in the 3200m, Atascadero HS Memorial Meet with 11:47 minutes.
Castelli praises coach Ivan Huff for instilling a love of running. “He’s just a great coach,” said Castelli.
She was baffled her Freshman year to have made it to the 2018 CIF State Cross Country Championships.
“It was such a big surprise for me and my coach and my teammates. No one really expected me to make it and it was just so exciting,” said Castelli, who had now found her new passion.
The four year Varsity Cross Country and Track veteran never thought she’d join the Cross Country team but gained inspiration from her sister, who also joined the team as a freshman, and her prior bursts of joy for going out for runs.
Another reason she joined was to befriend new people, one such person is her running partner since her sophomore year, junior Sydney Moore. The two have known each other for three years and both have always ran together everyday in-season and off-season according to Moore.
“We both are running partners, we keep the same pace and on workouts we’re only seconds off from each other,” said Moore,” she’s like a little motivation for me to keep going.”
Whenever the dynamic duo aren’t running together, Castelli dedicates a minimum of an hour from her busy schedule to go for runs each day. Friends such as Moore say that the joyful, goofy, and athletic runner is extremely dedicated to her sport and proves it everytime they see her.
In addition to her many athletic feats, Castelli has a plethora of academic successes off the track as well. She has completed the Patient Care pathway for CTE (CareerTechnical Education), successfully competed in SkillsUSA California, completed the National Emergency Communications certification while still being in high school. Castelli has a GPA of 4.0 and has been recognized four times for her kind heart and leadership by Lions Club, where teammates vote and select someone who embodies a good teammate who’s positive, supportive, and has a good coachable mentality.
Castelli will attend the University of California at Santa Barbara and will pursue a major in speech pathology. She’ll continue to lead a life where she strives for success at UC Santa Barbara in the future. Although she won’t be running for the university’s team, she’ll continue to run by herself and attempt to join a club to keep her passion for running alive.
