COTTONWOOD, CA - On a cool, overcast day, the Chico High girls team did so well Thursday at the Northern Section CIF Cross Country Championships that the Panthers even surprised themselves. Their depth prevailed as they not only won the Division III title but the overall one as well at the Northern Section CIF Cross Country Championships. Chico's Celeste Wilson placed 10th overall, and teammates Jessalyn Ayars, Annie Jolliff and Georgina Quinn finished soon after in the first final Thursday at West Valley High. As the D-III champion, Chico qualified for the state meet on Nov. 29 at Fresno.

While Chico's Wilson was hoping for a better individual finish than her time of 20 minutes, 4.65 seconds on the 3-mile course, she was happy that her team took the overall championship. " It's definitely a great title to hold. Chico High is infamous for placing well and scoring well," Wilson said. She wasn't the only one. Ayars was two spots behind Wilson for a 20:16.04 finish. "She ran out of her head," Chico coach Kevin Girt said of the sophomore. Rounding out the scoring for Chico, Annie Jolliff took 18th in 20:48.69, Georgina Quinn was 20th in 20:53.03 and Michaela Crescetelli claimed 36th in 21:39.23. " We're a really close team, and some of the people who pretty much hold this team together are graduating this year so it'll be nice to have that last cross country race with them," Wilson said.

Panther Annie Jolliff was caught off guard by the team's section title even though she wasn't surprised by how the Panthers ran, finishing so close together as she drew a clear distinction between the two. (Editor's note: Not sure why Jolliff was so surprised as they only lost once to a section rival all season & that was after most of the team gave blood). " It didn't feel like we did that well. We did obviously because we won. First overall, that's really amazing," Jolliff said. " We're all important because that's just not how cross country works. You can't win with just one person. I feel like we're all pretty good." The Panthers are better than that. On Thursday, they were the best once Michaela Crescetelli completed Chico's top five, providing the Panthers a total of 76 points to edge a vastly improved Yreka team(89) and EAL rival Shasta (104), the only section team to beat them during the season.

Girls 3 Mile Championship
Natalie Ulloa hasn't been completely healthy for months. But it didn't stop her from repeating as the Northern Section champion. The Enterprise High sophomore stayed in control the entire 3-mile course to win the girls race in 18 minutes, 55 seconds Thursday at the Northern Section cross-country championships at West Valley High School. "I get nervous all of the time thinking someone is going to catch me," Ulloa said. "I haven't been at my best because I was injured during track season and haven't been able to train as hard, so I knew I was going to be slower." After finishing 10 seconds short of the course record last year, Ulloa still had an expectation to challenge for a record-setting mark. While the cool weather was helpful in her quest to be the first repeat section winner since Chico's Kody Atkins in 2010-11, she was dismayed in her time. "I kind of knew at the 1-mile mark I wasn't going to get it," Ulloa said. "I haven't been my best and raced like I could. I can train all through track season and summer and I'll come back better."

Shasta High senior Hannah Davis was second in 19:04, followed by West Valley seniors Alex Flagg (19:10) and Jenna Storms (19:25). Storms in her four section races has placed 1st (2012), second (2013), third (2011) and now fourth. Davis has been chasing Ulloa the past two seasons, but she made her work harder to improve. "As an athlete you never want to tell yourself you can't catch her, but at one point I had to say, 'OK, she's good' and keep working and can't get down on myself," Davis said. "It helped me mentally because I improved over the season and only lost to her by (nine) seconds. "She's a great competitor and wouldn't trade her for anything because she pushes me."

Behind West Valley's seniors were Yreka's Meri Krier (5th, 19:31), Enterprise's Shalynn Fullerton (6th, 19:42), Central Valley's Anna Lewis (7th, 19:43), Redding Christian's Belle Moran (8th, 19:44) and Trinity's Karly Gutermuth (9th, 19:44) and Chico's Wilson.

Many individual runners also qualified for state. These included Shasta's Miranda Avalos in 11th (20:14), Red Bluff's Naomi Renfroe in 15th (20:27), Redding Christian's Olivia Lindsey in 17th (20:47), Foothill's Lauren Durbin in 22nd (20:56), Shasta's Mae Huang in 23rd (21:02), and CV's Abby Murch in 25th (21:07). Paradise junior Talia Swangler finished in 20:18.14 and 13th overall and Durham sophomore Ellie Coffee's time of 20:36.09 16th overall were among those good enough to get to Fresno. &The Las Plumas girls team, led by sophomore Alysa Merrifield, who finished 38th overall in 21:40 and freshman teammate Kaitlin Morgado was 40th in 21:44, is also state bound as the Thunderbirds finished third in the first year three section squads from Division IV go to state.

Chico won the overall section team title with 76 points and the D-III championship with 44 points. Yreka was the D-IV team winner with 37 points and was followed by West Valley with 46 points. Modoc was the D-V team winner with 39 points. Enterprise was second in D-III with 53 points, Shasta was third with 56 points and Red Bluff was fourth with 82 points. For D-V, Mount Shasta was third with 61 points and U-Prep was fourth points.

Boys 3 Mile Championship
Trinity's Ben Harper was the top-ranked section runner for the boys entering Thursday and he proved why. He busted open a tight race during the rugged second mile then cruised to win with a fine time of 15:56, eight seconds ahead of Mount Shasta's Chris Morzenti (16:03) and thirteen more to third place Miner's Matt Joachim (16:16). Harper was leading a pack of six (Mt Shasta's Morzenti, Chico's Graber, University Prep's Yonkers, Shasta's Davis) at the 1 mile mark, but strung out the field by the time he had crested the final hill on his way to the 2 mile marker and held off the field as he closed the home stretch well "I knew there were a lot of strong runners behind me, but I was feeling good so I had to keep pushing," Harper said. "I was kind of scared sometimes thinking they're right behind me."

Yreka, the defending D-IV state champion, was the overall section team winner for the second year in a row and third time in the last four with 52 points by placing three runners in the top eight. They also laid claim to the D-IV section title with 24 points. West Valley was second in D-IV with 52 points. Shasta was the D-III champion with 27 points, followed by Chico (52), Pleasant Valley (85), Red Bluff (92) and Foothill (123). U-Prep won the D-V team title.

Rounding out the top 10 finishers were U-Prep's Tyler Yonkers in fourth (16:22), Yreka's Brenden Berry 5th 16:23, Shasta's Riley Davis in sixth (16:29), Paradise's Masen Becerril, who took seventh overall in 16:33.47, Yreka's Jacob Hill 8th 16:37 and West Valley's Zach Baldwin in ninth (16:44) and Donald Leedy in 10th (16:47). The top individual from Chico was Chico's Jacob Graber was 11th in 16:53, just ahead of Pleasant Valley's Tony Hubbell who took 12th in 16:54. Liam Monniger, also of Chico, was 15th in 17:03.51. Graber was one of the race favorites, and he will be headed back to state after finishing as the top individual qualifier for D-III. " I expected to have a better race than I did today. However it happens, I had a really good season," said Graber, who won all three of his league races this year. All of them are headed to state as is Hamilton's Henry Cowan-Larkin, who was 18th overall in 17:06.02. Two freshmen are going as well. Corning's Cesar Rios finished in 17:14.05 for 27th, and Las Plumas' Brian Hastings placed 28th in 17:14.69.

Other top area runners were Shasta's Samuel Grafe in 14th (17:01), CV's Kendrick Aragon in 18th (17:07), Enterprise's Chris Prielipp in 19th (17:08), Shasta's Andrew Skoy in 20th (17:08), Shasta's Noah Bland in 21st (17:10), Mount Shasta's Jaden Anderson in 22nd (17:12) and West Valley's Chris Meeder in 24th (17:12). Pleasant Valley's Shayne Morrissey placed 23rd in 17:11.07. The boys teams headed to state are Shasta (Division III), Yreka ( D-IV), West Valley ( D- IV) and University Prep ( D-V), and the other girls teams going to Fresno are Yreka ( D-IV), West Valley (D-IV) and Modoc (D-V).