The Weekend in Cross Country - November 26
California State Meet - November 26
Woodward Park - Fresno, CA
Here is a preview of each race from the first race to the last race of the day:
Division 4 - Girls - 8:30
Based on the team time from last Saturday's Southern Section CIF Finals, JSerra might be one the better teams in the state of California (Buchanan will argue differently). JSerra had all seven runners under 19 minutes on the Mt. SAC course and are led by freshman Summer Wilson and sophomore Brynn Carcia. Oaks Christian is another contender and Payton Godsey ran the fastest time at CIF Finals. Southern Section schools of La Canada and Palos Verdes will also be in the mix with Oaks Christian. Scotts Valley, led by Ashlyn and Amber Boothby will try to break up the Southern Section pack. Freshman Chiara Dailey of La Jolla and Holly Barker of Laguna Hills are individuals to watch as she dominated the San Diego section race two weeks ago.
Division 5 - Girls - 9:00
San Francisco schools are the teams to watch with San Francisco University, Lick-Wilmerding and Convent & Stuart Hall continuing their battle from last week's CIF North Coast Section championship. Viewpoint and Xavier Prep from the Southern Section will be in the mix too. Individually Kaiya Brooks of Crystal Springs Uplands, Clara Riddle of Immanuel and Chloe Elbaz of Xavier College Prep will be up at the front.
Division 4 - Boys - 9:30
The Southern Section schools are the strong teams in this race. St. Francis of La Canada won last Saturday's CIF Finals and Palos Verdes was a close second. St. John Bosco, Foothill Technology and Cathedral will also be competitive. Albany of the North Coast Section, Matilda Torres of the Central Section and Scotts Valley of the Central Coast will try to break up the Southern Section schools. Sean Morello of Albany is the top returner from last year's state meet. Broen Holman of Sonora dominated the CIF Sac-Joaquin section. Emmanuel Perez of Cathedral is another individual athlete to watch.
Division 5 - Boys - 10:00
Yosemite boys dominated Central Section with a sweep led by brothers Ben and Jack Olney. Yosemite will be a team to reckon with for the next few years as their top five have four sophomores and one junior. Central Coast powers Crystal Springs Uplands and Menlo School will be up for the challenge to break up Yosemite. Justin Pretre of Menlo School, Eyan Turk of Woodcrest and Andrew Burr of Sacramento Country Day are individuals vying for the state title.
Division 1 - Girls - 10:30
Buchanan girls should defend their home turf. Clovis North kept it close in the Central Section last week. The division race will have school from all over California trying to keep up with Buchanan from Oak Ridge in the Sacramento area to Menlo-Atherton of Central Coast to Del Norte and Torrey Pines from the San Diego section and Great Oak, Santiago (Corona) and Rancho Cucamonga from the Southern Section. Individually, any of the Buchanan girls can win the race. Freshman Kynzlee Buckley of Buchanan won the Central Section last week. Hannah Wiggins of Del Norte and Tessa Buswell of Poway of the San Diego Section and will be up with the Buchanan girls. Kelli Gaffney of Great Oak won the Southern Section that includes other athletes who can challenge individually.
Division 2 - Boys - 11:00
Last year fans at Woodward Park ran all over the course to watch Newbury Park score the division 1 low score record of 16 points. Now in division 2, look for Newbury Park to try to achieve the lowest score for division 2 at Saturday's meet. Leo and Lex Young and Aaron Sahlman return for Newbury Park and try to go 1-2-3 in the race. Granada of Livermore is having a solid season with Roland Ruckmann-Barnes leading the team. Redwood of Lakespur is another strong team led by North Coast champion Daegan Cutter. Ventura boys are running real well and will be chasing Newbury Park.
Division 3 - Girls - 11:30
Campolindo girls led by Ellie Buckley dominated the North Coast Section last week and will be challenged by Dana Hills, led by Allura Markow. San Diego Section schools Cathedral Catholic, University City, La Costa Canyon and Sage Creek will be up for the battle. Individually, Hanne Thomsen of Montgomery of Santa Rosa is the heavy favorite and Gioana Lopizzo of La Costa Canyon, Ellie Buckley of Campolindo, Allura Markow of Dana Hills and Mia Torrecillas of Highland (Bakersfield) are other individuals to watch.
Division 1 - Boys - 12:00
San Clemente boys have really come on strong at the end of the season with an Orange County Championship and CIF sectional championship. The Tritons are ranked #1 in the recent PrepCalTrack/CIF poll and will be pushed by a number of schools. Great Oak has a tradition and the athletes to challenge San Clemente. Crescenta Valley were missing a key runner at CIF Finals and hope to be running with a full squad. The CIF Central Section has three strong teams in San Luis Obispo, Madera South and Clovis. Individually, there are number of athletes who can win the race including Matthew Donis of Highland (Palmdale), Jason Parra of Millikan, Cameron Rhone of Long Beach Poly, Ryan Mitchell of Davis, Nathan Short of Folsom, Chris Caudillo of Clovis, Milo Skapinsky of San Luis Obispo, Carter Spradling of Clovis East and Parker Simmons of Crescenta Valley.
Division 2 - Girls - 12:30
The last girl's race, it could be Los Altos bringing home the team trophy. With Buchanan not finishing with a full team at the Clovis Invitational, Los Altos won the invitational and set itself up as the front runner in division 2. Fellow Central Coast Section teams Palo Alto and St. Francis (Mountain View) were not far behind Los Altos in the CIF Finals. Newbury Park and Ventura are the strong teams from the Southern Section and Whitney from the Sac-Joaquin Section is another team to watch. Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura is the individual favorite and there are other athletes who will be trying to keep Sadie in their sights. Sadie's teammate, freshman Aelo Curtis of Ventura is finishing strong. Lauren Soobrian of Los Altos, Evangeline Marheineke and Kinga Czajkowska of Palo Alto are other strong athletes. Anna Chittenden of Mira Costa finished second last week in CIF Southern Section.
Division 3 - Boys - 1:00
Oakdale dominated the Sac-Joaquin CIF Final and Campolindo also dominated their sectional meet last Saturday and both schools can make a strong argument as who is the team to win on Saturday. Dana Hills in the Southern Section is another candidate to win on Saturday. Individually look for Joshua Bell of Templeton, Alexander Lodewick of Campolindo, Evan Noonan of Dana Hills, Bille Issa of West Ranch and Alexandro Vielma of Sonora to be factors in the race.
Look for photo galleries of the meet!