EAL Cross Country Championships Thursday November 7, 2013 North Forebay State Recreation Area Oroville, California
OROVILLE — The Eastern Athletic League cross country championships were almost a foregone conclusion before the races even got started. The top five for the Chico High boys and girls cross country teams had personal records on 3-mile courses that were within 50 seconds of each other. "Chico is a pretty dominating school," Panther sophomore Celeste Wilson said. Wilson paved the way for the Chico girls with a victory in the 33-person race in a personal-record time of 19 minutes, 22 seconds. Junior teammates Alyson Lacko (19:45), Melane Kavanagh (20:03), Annie Jolliff (20:08) and sophomore Georgie Quinn (20:08.9) rounded out the rest of Chico's scoring team in second, fourth, fifth and sixth place, respectively for a perfect 15 points and second straight EAL team title Thursday at the Thermalito Forebay. Paradise finished second with 50 points, while Oroville placed third with 79 points. Both Pleasant Valley, headlined by senior Francesca Vecere's all-league third-place finish in 19:49, and Las Plumas had incomplete teams. "I definitely wouldn't say that this team is better, but I wouldn't say that it's worse," said Wilson, whose previous PR at the Forebay was 20:40. "We did lose a lot of great runners, but we made up for it in training and (with) our incoming freshmen." Chico is young across the board, as its top five are all coming back next year. In fact, looking at the pre-meet numbers, Wilson wasn't supposed to win this race, because Kavanagh came in with the fastest time (19:51) on the team at the Forebay this year. However, Wilson grabbed the reins and was followed closely by Lacko. The Panther duo hope to continue the success at next Thursday's Northern Section championship meet hosted by West Valley in Cottonwood. "I'm looking forward to section because you get to (run against) the big dogs and see where you are compared to them," Lacko said. West Valley and Shasta are two of Chico's biggest tests — the latter being the rubber match for the Panthers. "We've beaten Shasta before (and) they've beaten us, but I think we know how to compete when we have to," Lacko said. Paradise was led once again this week by Talia Swangler, who grabbed the last all-league spot with a s eventh-place finish in 20:17. The sophomore was followed by senior Cassidy Burnett, who finished 12th in 21:04, while sophomore Sarah White (21:05) and senior Ali Rank (21:14) came in 13th and 14th respectively, to round out the EAL honorable mention finishers. The Chico boys dominated just as easily as the girls team, led by overall winner Jacob Graber. The junior, the 10th-fastest 3-miler in the section clocked a PR at 15:50 to pace a Panther squad that placed first, second, fourth, sixth and seventh overall in the 33-deep race and grabbed its second consecutive league championship with 20 points. PV, led by Masen Becerril's third-place finish in 16:05, finished runner-up with 53 points, while Oroville edged Paradise, 70-77 for third place. However, due to a better dual-meet record, the Bobcats forged a tie with the Tigers in the season standings. The day and the season belonged to the Panthers, as Chico senior Andris Molina followed Graber into the finish line in second place with a time of 16:01, while senior Adrian Gomez-Mora finished 7 seconds later in fourth and sophomore Liam Monninger and junior Benton Miller rounded out Chico's scoring team in sixth and seventh place, respectively, in 16:13 and 16:25. Paradise senior Justin McGlone, the Bobcats' No. 1 all year, finished fifth in the race in a PR 16:11. He tucked in behind Graber as part of his strategy. "I made sure I wouldn't go out in front of the fastest runner here," said McGlone, who came in as the top-ranked 2.8-miler and 23rd-best 3-mile racer in the section. "I made that mistake before. At West Valley, I started out in front of everybody (and) led the first 100 meters of the race and I did kind of bad because of that." The good news is McGlone will have a chance at redemption at West Valley's Cottonwood course next week at the section championships, which begin with the boys race at 2 p.m. McGlone will also be trying to be Paradise's first cross country runner to earn a state bid since Dylan Chamberlen in 2011. "It would mean a lot," McGlone said, "My coach, who went to state (all) four years (said) state is a really fun meet & It's an overnight meet and overnight meets are always fun."
Varsity Boys Team Scores ========================== 1. Chico 20 2. Pleasant Valley 53 3. Oroville 70 4. Paradise 77 Las Plumas inc Varsity Boys 3 Mile Varsity =============================================================== 1 Jacob Graber 11 Chico 15:50 2 Andris Molina 12 Chico 16:01 3 Masen Becerril 10 Pleasant Valley 16:05 4 Adrian Gomez-Mora 12 Chico 16:08 5 Justin McGlone 12 Paradise 16:11 6 Liam Monninger 10 Chico 16:13 7 Benton Miller 11 Chico 16:25 8 DJ Muller 12 Oroville 16:38 9 Luke Lundberg 12 Oroville 16:39 10 Tony Hubbell 11 Pleasant Valley 17:16 11 Shayne Morrissey 10 Pleasant Valley 17:27 12 Victor Rivera 11 Oroville 17:40 13 Eddy Schilling 11 Paradise 17:49 14 Trevor Bustamante 12 Pleasant Valley 17:56 15 Taylor O'Brien 11 Pleasant Valley 17:59 17 Zach Johnston 11 Oroville 18:16 18 Bailey Rau 12 Chico 18:24 19 Evan Mabie 11 Paradise 18:30 20 Jacob Needles 12 Pleasant Valley 18:40 21 Gannon Wallace 12 Las Plumas 18:49 22 Alex Moore 12 Las Plumas 19:19 23 Jeremy Benjamin 11 Paradise 19:50 24 Skyler Caldwell 12 Paradise 20:01 25 Tanner Cooley 11 Las Plumas 20:27 26 Seth Kittle 11 Pleasant Valley 20:35 27 Michael Gregorio 12 Paradise 20:43 28 Keith Lewis 11 Pleasant Valley 20:50 29 William Bennett 12 Paradise 21:25 30 Samuel Parmentier 12 Oroville 22:02 31 Austin Badour 11 Paradise 22:03 32 Kong Vang 12 Oroville 22:24 33 Rodger Echeberry 11 Paradise 23:44 34 Todd Crandall 12 Paradise 27:13 Varsity Girls Team Scores =================== 1. Chico 15 2. Paradise 50 3. Oroville 79 PV, Las Plumas inc Varsity Girls 3 Mile Varsity =============================================================== 1 Celeste Wilson 10 Chico 19:22 2 Alyson Lacko 11 Chico 19:45 3 Francesca Vecere 12 Pleasant Valley 19:49 4 Malene Kavanagh 11 Chico 20:03 5 Annie Jolliff 11 Chico 20:08.6 6 Georgie Quinn 10 Chico 20:08.9 7 Talia Swangler 10 Paradise 20:17 8 Meagan Burroughs 12 Chico 20:32 9 Kasey Perkins 12 Chico 20:45 10 Jessalyn Ayars 9 Chico 20:58 11 Macy Castaneda 12 Pleasant Valley 20:59 12 Cassidy Burnett 12 Paradise 21:04 13 Sarah White 10 Paradise 21:05 14 Ali Rank 12 Paradise 21:14 15 Molly Steindorf 11 Chico 21:51 16 Natasha Witzsche 12 Oroville 22:22 17 Emma Boots 11 Oroville 22:30 18 Kellie Fernandez 12 Las Plumas 22:36 19 Myriah Yam 12 Las Plumas 22:56 20 Kiara Rickson 12 Paradise 22:59 21 Hannah Harter 12 Chico 23:09 22 Camille Chamberlen 12 Paradise 23:57.1 23 Baylee Danz 12 Paradise 23:57.9 24 Emma Platz 12 Chico 24:02 25 Gabby Pero 11 Pleasant Valley 24:12 26 Alyssa Crabtree 12 Paradise 24:18 27 Brooke Bramlage 12 Oroville 24:38 28 Laura Finn 12 Oroville 24:57 29 Josefina Palacio 12 Chico 26:03 30 Yessica Pinto 12 Chico 26:25 31 Savannah Englestead 11 Paradise 27:18 32 Kenslie Nicolaides 11 Paradise 29:33 33 Katty Carr 12 Oroville 33:05 JV Boys Team Scores =========================== 1. Pleasant Valley 39 2. Chico 43 3. Las Plumas 74 4. Paradise 76 Oroville inc JV Boys 2.2 Mile Junior Varsity =============================================================== 1 Jason Ellis 10 Pleasant Valley 11:56 2 Mitchell McLaughlin 10 Chico 12:12 3 Kevin Schillig 10 Oroville 12:16 4 Calvin Freer 10 Pleasant Valley 12:19 5 Ethan Hamel 9 Chico 12:22 6 Brycen Williams 9 Las Plumas 12:28 7 Calvin Evans 10 Paradise 12:33 8 Rory Sprague 10 Chico 12:43 9 Elijah Valderama 9 Las Plumas 12:44 10 Noah Iliff 10 Paradise 12:45 11 Scott Kampfen 9 Pleasant Valley 12:50 12 Rodrigo Flores 9 Las Plumas 13:07 13 Josh Bronson 9 Pleasant Valley 13:10.1 14 Daniel Schneider 10 Pleasant Valley 13:10.6 15 Dominic Barbara 9 Chico 13:10.9 16 Jacob Hoe 9 Pleasant Valley 13:18 17 Zach Erickson 9 Chico 13:21 18 Jacob Supanich 10 Pleasant Valley 13:25.4 19 Colton Peters 10 Paradise 13:26.0 20 Logan Campostrini 10 Oroville 13:30 21 Duncan Ober 10 Chico 13:34.2 22 David Snider 9 Chico 13:34.4 23 Adolfo Santos 10 Paradise 13:34.8 24 Chase Bennett 10 Paradise 13:36 25 Jacob Kleimann 9 Paradise 13:41 26 Ryan Corp 10 Pleasant Valley 13:43 27 Kai Kiesling 10 Chico 13:46 28 Tyler Bruce 9 Las Plumas 13:47 29 Quinntin Sette 10 Paradise 13:48 30 Dominick Isom 9 Pleasant Valley 13:52 31 William Sorenson 9 Pleasant Valley 13:57 32 Jeremy Hart-Bode 9 Las Plumas 14:15 33 Bryant Bettencourt 9 Pleasant Valley 14:17 34 Cory Kirk 10 Oroville 14:24 35 Luciano Giambolvo 9 Chico 14:29 36 Jose Rosales 9 Las Plumas 14:36 37 Lawrence Loughman 9 Pleasant Valley 14:42 38 Ortiz Camacho Aure... 10 Chico 14:57 39 Kyle Sprague 9 Chico 14:59 40 Jordyn Hurley 9 Las Plumas 15:01 41 Spencer Volpato 9 Pleasant Valley 15:18 42 Tony Rosales 9 Las Plumas 15:19 43 Kaya Garcia 10 Las Plumas 16:09 44 Grant Martine 9 Pleasant Valley 16:16 45 Michael Wiles 9 Las Plumas 16:33 46 Douglas Roberts 9 Pleasant Valley 17:02 47 Spencer Genna 10 Paradise 18:07 48 Alec Hoffman 9 Pleasant Valley 18:54 49 Sachin Kumar 10 Pleasant Valley 20:46 JV Girls Team Scores =================== 1. Chico 15 2. Paradise 50 Pleasant Valley, Las Plumas inc Oroville no runners JV Girls 2.2 Mile Junior Varsity =============================================================== 1 Nicole Dully 10 Pleasant Valley 14:09 2 Samantha Havens 10 Las Plumas 14:18 3 Rachel Sites 10 Chico 14:43 4 Patzy Fuentes 9 Chico 14:59 5 Lauren Moxon 10 Chico 15:00 6 Delaney Simchuk 9 Chico 15:20 7 Kassie Finley 10 Chico 15:29 8 Zoe Bishop 10 Chico 16:16 9 Maia Young 10 Chico 16:23 10 Devon Tietz 10 Chico 16:45 11 Jalen Parrott 9 Paradise 16:50 12 Ariel Mota 9 Chico 16:50.1 13 Sierra Hall 9 Pleasant Valley 16:52 14 Ryann Woods 9 Pleasant Valley 16:55 15 Jazmine Munguia 9 Chico 17:24 16 Kara Gorr 9 Paradise 17:40 17 Karma Eastman 10 Paradise 17:44 18 Sonia Hitchcock 10 Chico 18:00 19 Meechelle Worthing... 10 Paradise 18:00.1 20 Mikayla Edwards 10 Chico 18:03 21 Sonia Damian 10 Chico 20:03 22 Alexsandra King 9 Paradise 22:54 23 Gennesis Ospina 10 Chico 24:24