Thirty-eight local cross country teams descended upon the rain course at Mt. San Antonio College on Nov. 14-15 for the CIF-Southern Section Cross Country Prelims, with berths to the finals on the line.
It was the second time in three years that a CIF-SS cross country race used the adjusted rain course at Mt. SAC. Eighteen of the local teams racing finished within the top four of their respective heats to advance to the finals this weekend at Mt. SAC.
The battle of the day came in the third of four Division 2 girls cross country heats, with two of Ventura County’s top programs in Ventura and Westlake battling until the end.
Led by an individual win from freshman Anais Cruz in 16 minutes, 56.3 seconds, Westlake won the cross-county clash, 32-45. The teams ran the two fastest times of the 52 Division 2 squads as both qualified for the finals.
The Ventura duo of Sophia Nuckols (2nd, 17:01.1) and Aelo Curtis (3rd, 17:04.9) broke up the Warriors’ Cruz’s twins, with Sabina Cruz placing fourth in 17:09.
Westlake’s Rae Rae Castagna (17:39.5) and Aria Cinelli (18:00.3) placed eighth and ninth, respectively, while Ventura locked up ninth and 10th place with Emerson McMeekin (18:10.8) and Paola Estrada (18:22.9).
The Oak Park boys and girls teams both got heat wins, with the girls averaging 18:11 in the second heat of the Division 3 prelims. The Eagles beat Coastal Canyon League rival Simi Valley (third place) and Moorpark (fifth place) along the way to qualifying for the finals.
The Eagles put their top six runners in the top 13, scoring 40 points to defeat Monrovia by 25. Kathleen Lambe finished seventh in 18:05.7, Sophia Perez took eighth in 18:05.7, Tabitha Brown placed ninth in 18:05.7, Aine Pitillo was 10th in 18:06.0, and Saoirse Boehm was 12th in 18:27.8.
Simi Valley’s Cecilia Vasquez was the top local finisher in the race, placing second in 17:23.3. Acacia Rojas was 17th in 18:47.2, Anabelle Espinoza was 19th in 19:09.9 and Angelica Espinoza was 20th in 19:11.9 for the Pioneers, who are also headed to the finals.
Jenna Murray of Moorpark (3rd, 17:24.7) and Reese Tamburro of Agoura (4th, 17:29.9) qualified as individuals for the finals out of the heat.
Thousand Oaks’ Maggie De la Rionda won her Division 3 girls heat in 17:21.5 to advance to the finals.
It was local dominance in the Oak Park boys team’s win, with the Eagles beating Agoura 42-72 as both teams reached the finals. Runners from the two teams made up 15 of the top 23 finishers in the heat.
Oak Park’s Dimitri Natale was sixth in 15:26.5, Ethan Marley was 10th in 15:38.7, Dhruv Kulkarni was 11th in 15:38.7, Jaiden Chan was 12th in 15:38.9, and Ari Kalan was 13th in 15:39.0.
Agoura had a 1-5 split of just 11 seconds. Dakota D’Amore finished eighth in 15:33.1, Ethan Trafficanda was 17th in 15:41.8; Ethan Deleau was 18th in 15:41.8, Dorian Bening was 19th in 15:42.3, and Lucas Gary was 20th in 15:44.7.
Qualifying for the section finals as individuals out of the same Division 3 boys heat were Oren Hill of Thousand Oaks (2nd, 14:49.8), Sebastian DeVicente of Buena (4th, 15:23.0) and Zackary Hatch of Moorpark (5th, 15:25.2).
Local teams racked up the runner-up finishes in their heats throughout the day to lock up finals berths.
The Ventura boys team placed second in its Division 2 heat, led by Noah Sloan securing fourth in 15:04.4. Blake Harris finished eighth in 15:19.0, Jesus Martinez was 13th in 15:35.0, Brandon Fischer was 18th in 15:46.6, and Noah Fong was 21st in 15:48.1.
Newbury Park placed second in its Division 2 girls heat, with Sophia Grant leading the way with a seventh-place finish in 18:20.9. Helena Rieckewald-Schmidt was just behind in eighth in 18:21.8, Victoria Barnes was ninth in 18:21.6 and Cambria Brown was 17th in 18:42.5.
Foothill Tech secured second-place finishes in both its girls and boys Division 4 heats.
Led by Andres Hernandez in ninth place, the boys had five scorers finish within 20 seconds of each other, while the girls were led by a third-place finish from Keera Wallace in 18:06.2.
It was a pair of second-place finishes for the Oaks Christian boys and girls teams in the Division 4 heats. Delaney Napierala won her race in 17:14.6, followed by Christina Smith in sixth in 18:27.4 and Allie Smith in seventh in 18:32.4. Keira Huff and Chloe Norena were 30th and 31st, running just over 20 minutes.
The boys went 1-2-3 in a near-dead heat, led by Arize Nwosu’s first-place finish in 15:22.7. Freshman phenom Sterling White was second in 15:11.8 and Vin Krueger was third in 15:12.1 for the Lions.
In Division 5, Thacher placed second in its boys and girls heats. Lucas De Clercq was ninth in 16:11.9, Alec DiLullo was 11th in 16:13.7, Charlie Clarke was 12th in 16:14.8, Willem DeClerq was 27th in 16:56.5 and Soren Meyer was 37th in 17:14.7 for the boys team.
The girls team was led by a runner-up finish from Chloe Hamilton in 18:35.7 and backed up by Euan Kim in 11th in 20:18.1, Annikka Zhou in 15th in 20:53.0, Lu Rodriguez in 19th in 21:27.8, and Elodie Chapus in 24th in 21:56.6.
The Newbury Park boys team finished third in a Division 2 heat led by an eight-place finish from Micah Dickran in 15:07.9. Jensen Clarke was 17th in 15:30.2, Dylan Warner was 19th in 15:34, Graham Reynolds was 20th in 15:35.7, and Eli Zasloff was 21st in 15:35.8.
Led by a heat win and a blazingly fast time from junior Derek Luna, who finished first in 14:34.8, Rio Mesa took third in its Division 2 boys heat to advance to the finals. Isaia Rodriguez was 13th in 15:25.4, Marco Sanchez was 14th in 15:27.1, LuisFelipe Ochoa was 23rd in 15:35.9, and Jason Perez was 30th 15:57.2.
Westlake placed third in its Division 2 boys heat with all five scorers within 15 places of each other. Mason Forrest finished 15th in 15:37.6, Allan Cruz was 16th in 15:39.2, Connor Atkins was 19th in 15:45.0, Ryan Douglas was 28th in 15:52.9, and Dylan Douglas was 30th in 15:54.4.
In the surprise of the day, the Channel Islands boys team appeared to miss out on a finals berth by one spot, finishing fifth in its Division 2 heat until it was revealed that some of its runners, including leader Uriel Texis, had taken a wrong turn in the race.
Texis still ran 15:17.8 for seventh place and the Raiders were advanced to the finals due to the error on the course. Sebastian Lopez placed 13th in 15:29.5, Mathew Anthony was 22nd in 15:47.5, Diego Salazar was 40th in 16:10.8, and Erick Rios was 48th in 16:31.0.
Dominic Massimino is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at dominic.massimino@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura, Westlake girls clash in CIF-Southern Section cross country prelims
Reporting by Dominic Massimino, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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