enabled Mt Shasta to place their scoring five ahead of Woodcrest's fourth with a 1-5 spread that was nearly a minute less. Mt. Shasta totalled 87 (98:18),Woodcrest 111 (99:07), while Chadwick took third at 156 (101:48). Sojka is the only grad for Mt. Shasta, while
Woodcrest should have everyone back, so the battle royal is likely to be mounted again next fall.
Mount Shasta High School's girls cross country team is the first Northern Section squad in state history to win back-to-back-to-back CA titles.
What Mt. Shasta High School represents on the cross country course is now nothing short of a Division V dynasty.
Another meet, another string of broken records and most importantly, another California State Championship for the Mount Shasta girls cross country team.
Facing some of their fiercest competition during their five year run of going to state, Mt. Shasta's girls runners again proved their mettle in claiming the 2007 D-V Girls California State Cross Country Title.
The Bears team ended 24 points ahead of last year's third place team Woodcrest Christian and 69 less than last year's runner up Chadwick.
The girls made history by accomplishing the feat for an unprecedented third consecutive year by a Northern Section school.
"The race was over by the mile mark," coach Steve Nesheim exclaimed. "We simply ran like a machine."
And everyone stepped up for the Bears.
Senior Natalie Sojka ran to a third overall finish at 18 minutes and 45 seconds on the three-mile course, two seconds behind the runner-up.
Sophomore Maggie Strong squeezed out a seventh place spot in 19 minutes and 9 seconds by a razor thin margin over the eighth and ninth place runners.
Juniors Cynthia Laiacona, 24th place in 20:00, Hannah Grover, 29th in 20:08, and Joanna Beem, 35th in 20:16, rounded out Mount Shasta's top five scorers, beating the 2006 Bears' time by 17 seconds at the CIF State Championships in Woodward Park for the fifth best D-V girls team time in California history.
Nesheim's 2005 girls team is the best in Mount Shasta's history and fourth best all time in D-V California.
The numbers are as dizzying as the girls were motivated Saturday.
According to Nesheim, all top five girls, along with junior Cary Rogers and sophomore Heather Zanni, ran their fastest races of the season.
Sojka, Strong, Grover, Rogers and Zanni even pushed themselves to their fastest times ever.
"The team continued its peak from two weeks ago at the Northern Section Championships," Nesheim said.
With trends like this it's almost a shame the season has to end.
For the first time in three years, the Mt. Shasta boys cross country team slid out of the top ten Division V schools in the state, but only by four points.
"I know the boys are disappointed," coach Steve Nesheim says of their 11th place finish Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno. "But realistically the boys are in a rebuilding phase."
Senior Ramon Rubio led the Bears with a 14th place finish in 16:45.
Disappointment aside, Rubio, juniors Eric Ault and Mitchell Nesheim, and sophomores Lars Warn and Jonathan Davis all ran their fastest pace of the season building off their success in winning the D-V Northern Section Championship Nov. 8.
Storming out of the gate, Rubio, Warn, Nick Kennedy and Andy Beem all set personal records in the first mile.
Rubio, Warn and Beem also set personal records for the course as Warn trimmed 2:18 off his 2006 state meet time.
"Returning to the tent (for a top ten finish) will require some new blood and some summer mileage," Nesheim assessed.
All boys but the graduating Rubio and Kennedy should return for the Bears in 2008.
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