COTTONWOOD, CA - Two new individual champions were crowned at this year Northern Section Cross Country Championships, the first time since 1994 when both returning defending champions failed to win. In the girls race going in, it was no secret that Enterprise's Natalie Ulloa was not going to contend as she has been out all season with a stress fracture. For the boys, 2014 champion Ben Harper from Trinity was going to have his hands full in repeating as champion against section rivals Mt Shasta's Chris Morzenti and Chico's Jack Emanual, both of whom he'd lost races to. In the case of Morzenti, he had lost more times than he had won. Most recently only the week before at the Small Schools Championships held on the very same course. Would he be able to come up with a solution to mitigate the Mt Shasta senior's kick?

The boys race opened the championships with the Panther's Emanual going out very aggressively in the opening mile, drawing Morzenti and Harper well ahead of the rest of the field in their desire to stay close . The hilly portion of second mile temporarily dropped Emanuel from contention, as pace work by Harper opened up a 50 meter gap on the Chico junior but nothing at all on Morzenti. The pace slowed enough coming out of the hills for Emanuel to catch back up with the leaders with his momentum taking him to the front with a little under a mile to go. At this point, Harper started to fade but Morzenti did not. Emanuel was under no illusions, he himself had been a victim of Mt Shasta senior's kick earlier in the season. A kick that has given Morzenti the reputation as "the closer" in the North State since coming back from 50 meters back to win the 1600m race at last spring's section track championships.

That is indeed what happened on Thursday, at West Valley High School, as the Mount Shasta High senior took over the lead from Chico's Jack Emanuel with little over 100 meters of the 3-mile race remaining to come away with a Northern Section cross-country championships in 16 minutes flat. Morzenti, who after trailing either him or Trinity's Ben Harper the entire race, pulled even with Emanuel approaching the stadium then sprinted his way for a two second win on West Valley's newly resurfaced track. "I felt like I got a second wind and was just going to go with it. But Jack took off and started hammering the pace, and if I didn't go with him, it was his race to win," Morzenti said. "As soon as we passed the gate, I was confident in my kick because of my track PRs and figured this was one of my last races in high school ever, so I went for it."

Morzenti won the section small-school championships on the same course last week, sitting behind Harper until the sprint at the end. His strategy didn't change, but this time it was Emanuel he was chasing at the finish. Emanuel's fast start set the pace early, and Morzenti had to stay close until he could make his move. "I figured Jack would take it hard. That's his normal thing to do, and he went harder than I wish he would have," Morzenti said. "I wasn't planning on going out too hard, so I (would) have some left at the end. I felt like I failed at that, but it still played out pretty well."

Boys 3 Mile Championship

Emanuel, a junior in his first season of cross-country, jumped out front early to hold the lead amongst the field of 170 runners, until giving it up once he hit the hilly portion of the 3-mile course. "For the first mile, it was the top three: me, Chris (Morzenti) and Ben (Harper)," Emanuel said. "We hit the first hill and they just lost me about 50 yards or so. Then in the second mile, I woke up and started kicking it in gear. I caught them with about 400 meters (probably closer to 800 meters - ed note) to go." It will be Emanuel's first trip to the state meet and though he was happy with the second-place finish, he described it more as bittersweet. "I feel pretty good," Emanuel said. "I was expecting to get third. I would've liked to get first but I'm happy about it. There's a lot of competition (at state), but I'm ready. This is my first year and I'm just trying to get a learning experience out of it."

Harper, the section's No. 2 runner and last year's section champion, dropped to third midway in the last mile. However it was not until the final 200 meters when he lost of his form, untimately falling down twice on the track before crawling over the finish line in 16th (17:28) place. His mother and coach, Joanne Harper, helped him to the side of the track, where he received medical attention for nearly 20 minutes and eventually was given oxygen. Harper later was able to walk and did not go to the hospital. "He hit an extreme exhaustion, and we don't know what caused it," Joanne Harper said. "He's recovering right now. It's happened a couple of times recently, but this is the most extreme. He pushed himself farther than he should."

Behind the dramantics out front, Shasta's Andrew Skoy ran solid to take third with West Valley's Chris Meeder (4th, 16:43) and Zach Baldwin (5th, 16:48) rounded out the top five overall. Paradise senior Masen Becerril took sixth in 16:49. West Valley won the overall boys title for the first time since 2005, netting 63 points thanks to having three finishers in the top seven. Donald Leedy was seventh (16:56), Gabe Cheek was 14th (17:28) and Eric Morefield completed the championship team in 35th place (18:11). "We stayed together as a group and pushed each other the entire time," Meeder said. "If one of us falls back, we pick each other up and always follow each other."

Shasta was second overall with 73 points and the top Division III team and is state-bound, while U-Prep took third with 98 points and is also heading to Fresno as the section's top D-V squad. Mount Shasta (D-V) was fourth with 105 points but is not going to state as the section only gets one qualifer in D-V. West Valley is only one of three D-IV state qualifying teams as ironically Yreka, which was seventh overall with 204 points, and Paradise, which was eighth with 210 points also get to compete at state. Other top area boys finishers included U-Prep's Michael Cramer in eighth (17:05), Mount Shasta's Ryan Hering in 11th (17:10), Shasta's Noah Bland in 12th (17:18), U-Prep's Forrest Moore in 15th (17:29) and teammate Nathan Lervold, who also had some finishing issues, placed 21th (17:39). Mount Shasta's Jaden Anderson was 18th (17:30) and Shasta's Brent Hunter (17:39) and Carlos Manzo (17:40) rounded out the top 20, respectively.

Pleasant Valley High's Shayne Morrisey finished 22nd and teammate Xavier Simms took 25th, sending both Vikings to the state meet as individual qualifiers. Corning senior Eduardo Blancas finished in 23rd in 17:44 and sophomore teammate Austin Mishoe took 27th in 17:50 to qualify individually for state.

Girls 3 Mile Championship

The girls race was no less dramatic but in the completely different way. Celeste Wilson made sure that once she grabbed the lead, she stayed ahead of the competition. The result left Wilson victorious on a sunny, warm November afternoon, claiming her first section title Thursday on West Valley High School's storied 3-mile Northern Section Cross Country Championship race course. Chico senior Celeste Wilson, never finishing better than her 10th-place finish at last year's section championships and never running under 20 minutes on the course until earlier this year, came away with a dominating 16-second victory. She took the lead at the first turn and never trailed again. "I was able to pull ahead right in the beginning and from right then I maintained that pace," Wilson said. "I stayed right in the front, and I didn't let anybody pass me. I was super in the zone. I kept telling myself, 'This is your race, this is your time, you need to win this. Getting second place is the worst feeling ever and you don't want that.'"

Out of a field of 135 competitors, Wilson was the only one under 19 minutes, finishing in a fine time of 18 minutes, 52 seconds. Her victory qualifies her for the state meet, held in Fresno's Woodward Park on Saturday, November 28. "It feels so good," Wilson said. "I've put in tons of hours, I've put in tons of mileage, I've put in tears, blood, urine, vomit all into this sport. To put all of that work and training into a race and to come out on top feels so great and rewarding." "I've been competing in this race for the last four years and it feels good to be the champion," Wilson said.

Yreka won the girls section team title, finishing with the low score on the day with 67 points by placing four running in the top 15, with Meri Krier (9th, 20:20), freshman Lena Fogle (10th, 20:22), Mallory Ward (11th, 20:23) and Lacey Jackson (14th, 20:50). Arianna Brooks rounded out the Miner's scoring five placing 32nd (22:00) with a victory that also qualifies them for the state meet in Division IV race. Shasta High, the champions of Eastern Athletic-Sacramento River League team and runnerup to Yreka in the overall standings won the Division III title with 87 points, besting Chico's 104 points. Shasta didn't have a runner in the top 10 but had four finishers in the top 20 and were led by Miranda Avalos (12th, 20:25) and Mae Huang (13th, 20:26).

Though Chico couldn't qualify as a team for the state meet after finishing third on the day, Wilson will still be joined in Fresno by teammate Jessalyn Ayers, who took 16th, as she finally overcame an iron deficiency that seriously impacted her performance most of the season. Other individual qualifiers included Foothill senior Belle Moran was second (19:08), Trinity's Karly Gutermuth was third & top D-V runner(19:23), sophomore Kelly Koehnen of Hamilton, who finished the race in fourth and was the top D-IV runner in 19:59, Central Valley's Anna Lewis was fifth (20:06) and Paradise senior Talia Swangler, who placed sixth in 20:12. Other state bound individuals includ Red Bluff's Naomi Renfroe in eighth (20:17), Mount Shasta's Marissa Bonivert in 17th (21:05), and Foothill's Laurel Durbin in 20th (21:27) and Orland senior Yadira Gamboa after finishing in 21st in 21:30.

U-Prep was fourth overall with 167 points and won the D-V title for the fourth time in five years. U-Prep heads to state as the D-V representative and was led by Morgan Gregory's seventh-place finish (20:14), and teammate Savannah Tate was 15th (20:52). Enterprise was fifth with 174 points will head to state as the section second representive in D-IV.