Third times a charm as D'Acquisto reclaims section title while Atkins wins first
Enterprise boys crush field, Chico girls overcome adversity to become section's top teams
By Jeffrey Jen/Record Searchlight, Nick Wilson/Chico ER & Tom Cushman
Wednesday November 10, 2010
Just past the mile, Enterprise senior Domenic D'Acquisto already had a commanding lead in the varsity boys North Section Cross Country Championships, He would go on to run the second fastest time ever run on the course in reclaiming the section title he lost for the first time last year
Cottonwood, California -- Domenic D'Acquisto delivered the vintage performance many expected from him. His Hornet teammates also came through by delivering a record-setting performance for the Enterprise High School boys team at Wednesday's Northern Section Cross Country Championships at West Valley High School.

D'Acquisto made a run at the boys course record held by Tim Nelson before settling for a winning time of 15 minutes, 19 seconds, for his third section boys title. He still finished nearly a minute ahead of the 188-runner field and wound up with the second-fastest mark of all-time on the West Valley course behind Nelson's 15:01. As a team, Enterprise set a team time record with the top five runners finishing in a time of 83:10, breaking the 83:21 mark set by Lassen back in 1994.

In the girls race, Chico junior Kody Atkins led the Panthers to the overall section title by pulling away from a loaded field and winning in a time of 19:16. West Valley sophomore Hannah Dorman stayed with Atkins for the first two miles, but fell away by the final mile, to finish second in 19:32. American Christian junior Stephanie Rasmussen was third in 19:39 followed by freshman teammate Autumn May in fourth (19:40).

However, the day belonged to D'Acquisto and the Hornets' boys team. The senior, who won the section race in 2007 and 2008, took the lead shortly after the start of the 3-mile race and kept pulling away from there. Through two miles, he was on pace to challenge the 2002 mark belonging to Nelson, a Liberty Christian product who went on to an All-American career at the University of Wisconsin. However, he couldn't quite reach it.

Still, D'Acquisto became only the second section runner in history to go under the 15:30 mark on the hilly West Valley course. "I'm happy," D'Acquisto said of his performance. "The last mile was really hard, but I had a lot of support and pulled through it. I really couldn't ask for more."

Behind him, a trio of juniors in Paradise's Dylan Chamberlen, Yreka's Eric Neill and Tim Williams were battling for the runner-up spot. Chamberlen wound up in second in 16:13, Neill was third in 16:19 while Williams faded to sixth (16:27). Enterprise senior Austin Lamkin edged Foothill junior Tony Meredith for fourth with Lamkin crossing the finish line in 16:24.33 and Meredith in 16:24.67. Redding Adventist senior Eric Ghelfi took seventh (16:34) behind Williams with Etna sophomore John Whelan (16:36) and Enterprise junior John Collins (16:39) close behind. West Valley sophomore Ryan Stockton rounded out the top 10 in 16:42.
The performances of D'Acquisto, Lamkin and Collins put the Hornets within striking range of Lassen's team course record and the Hornets got the mark after senior Isaiah Boles finished 19th in 17:04 and senior Nathan McFarlane was 31st in 17;42. "It's great to break that record," Hornets' cross country coach Jim Deaver said. "That's huge. I'm elated. We ran really well as a team." Enterprise had 59 points, well ahead of D-II winner Chico (96) and D-IV winner Yreka (121). Shasta was fourth at 145 followed by Oroville (176) and Foothill (211).
The girls race featured nine of the top 10 section finishers from last year and figured to be open. Sure enough, after the first mile, Dorman and Rasmussen had the lead with West Valley senior Corissa Storms and Shasta senior Lora James only a few meters back. Atkins was another few meters behind along with reigning section champion Tiffany Heflin of Lassen. However, Heflin and Storms were unable to keep up the tempo of the others. After the first hill, Atkins and James had moved up behind Dorman and Rasmussen.

Atkins, who is the reigning two time section champion in both the 400 and 800 in track, then took off on the second hill and only Dorman could stay with her for a time. "I wanted to stay close to the leaders," Atkins said. "I got to the front on the second hill. I was a little surprised because I didn't expect to do so well, but I just kept on going."

Atkins went on to win her first Northern Section cross country individual title and propelled the Panthers to the team championship. As far as Chico coach Kevin Girt was concerned, Atkins' approach to the race couldn't have been any better. "Kody ran perfectly," Girt said. "Last year she was in a similar situation. She spotted the girl who won (Heflin) 100 yards and just couldn't make it up. This time she raced to win. That's the thing, it isn't always about worrying about time, it's about going out to win, and that's what she did."

And though Atkins was fully aware that she had the ability to win beforehand, she was somewhat taken aback when it actually happened. "I was pretty surprised," admitted Atkins. "I started out trying to stay with the pack, then on about the second mile I moved out in front." And that's where she stayed through the remainder of the race.

Dorman, pressing the pace over the first mile with Rasmussen, had the early lead and had such a fast first mile that one of her coaches was afraid she would blow up at some point on the hills. She didn't though she couldn't quite stay with Atkins either. "I was supposed to run behind Corissa in the race, but I was feeling pretty good and decided to push things early on," Dorman said. "Kody is tough. I tried to stay with her as long as I could."

Likewise, Rasmussen was able to rally for third despite a mid race swoon after initially jumping to the front. "I wanted to go out really fast and see how long I could stay there," Rasmussen said.
West Valley sophomore Hannah Dorman maintains close contact with Chico's Kody Atkins as the two pull away from the field coming off the final hill. Atkins would pull away over the final mile for a decisive victory.  
"Kody always has that burst and it is tough to stay with her." May was pleasantly surprised by her result in which she followed her teammate around Pleasant Valley sophomore Melanie Hickman in the closing meters to take fourth. She was third in the small-school race over the same course a week ago in 20:35, but lopped off nearly a minute from that. "I was kind of amazed by what I was doing," May said. "I couldn't believe it when I passed Lora and Corissa." After Hickman (19:41), Chico junior Amanda Costa (19:46) outkicked Storms (19:50) to finish sixth followed by James (20:05) who held off fast closing Durham senior Morgan Schell (20:06). Last year's winner Heflin wound up a surprising 10th (20:07).

Shasta continued to make strides with its cross country program as the Wolves girls finished second to Chico, the DII winner, to claim the Division III team crown. The Panthers margin of victory was slim considering they had three finishers in the top 12 and were the overwhelming favorite to win the race. However an unfortunate late season illness waylaided their normally reliable number three runner, Azure Grant while potentially more serious health issues left their number five runner Kaila Richardson watching from the sidelines. Chico ended up with 77 points overall while Shasta had 91 points followed by Foothill (128) and Enterprise (139). Behind James, Shasta also good runs from Michelle Osuna (15th, 20:16), Nathalie Avalos (20:34) and Shannon Woodfill (22nd, 20:52).

Durham was fifth with 142 points to be the top D-V team. Oroville was sixth (149) to edge West Valley (152) for the D-IV title. Mount Shasta (173) beat out University Prep (193) for the second D-V team spot to qualify for the state meet on Nov. 27 in Fresno.

On the JV side of the ledger, Pleasant Valley led by freshman Meagan Burroughs, easily won the girls open race over EAL north rival Enterprise by placing five runners in the top eleven. Chico's Delancy Smith finished second overall, followed by PV's Brittany Baume, the winner of last week's EAL North JV girls race.

The Chico JV boys had an even easier time of it, placing five in the top six to win 18-53 over second place Shasta. Chico youthful contingent was led by Chris Charington, apparently recovered from a early season run in with a bike, and close second by long maned sophomore Malcolm Hinz, last week's winner of the EAL North JV race.