COTTONWOOD, CA - Something clicked for Shasta High's Andrew Skoy in the middle of his junior year that sent him into a full training mode. The Wolves' senior was coming off a third-place finish at the Northern Section cross-country championships, but it wasn't good enough. A spring track season culminated in winning the section 3,200-meter race and he's carried that success through the summer to another section title. Skoy completed the 3-mile hilly course at West Valley High School in 15 minutes, 33 seconds Thursday afternoon to become the Northern Section overall champion for the boys race. He's the third section cross country champion from Shasta High, the first since Rudy Martinez in 2003. He ran the fastest time of anyone from Shasta on the course, which translates to fifth place tie with Yreka's three time champion Aaron Gillen on the all time section performance list.

Boys 3 Mile Championship

"I really buckled down on my training and it helped to have (Olympic marathoner) Ryan Hall locally to help me get to the next level," Skoy said. "I didn't want to just be Northern Section good, but in the whole state and I've seen huge jumps on my times because of how hard I pushed myself." The heat on a mid-70s afternoon got to Skoy a little bit, he said, but the fact that Chico's Jack Emanuel, who has challenged him the whole year, wasn't slowing down behind him also was an incentive. Although Skoy led the entire way to finish perfect among Northern Section competition this season, it wasn't easy. "I was putting in all these surges on the hills and no matter how many I put in, they always said Jack is 20 yards back; and that was demoralizing to me," Skoy said. "When you're up here alone, it's hard to do that by yourself and hold the lead on a challenging course."

Jack Emanuel and Charlie Giannini led the Chico High boys cross-country team to the Northern Section championship on Thursday at West Valley High. This is Chico's first section title since 1978. A lot of good teams have run for the Panthers since then but none has been more consistent or more dominating than this one has. A surprising development since this team is not loaded with seniors. The Panthers' five scoring runners posted 52 points to top University Prep's second-place total of 81 for the overall team title on a warm November day that got the best of more than one competitor when paired with the challenging 3-mile course of rolling hills at the Cottonwood school. Emanuel, one of two seniors among the top runners for Chico on the day, took second as an individual in 15 minutes, 58 seconds, and Giannini, a sophomore, was third in 16:36.

More importantly Chico, as the top placing Division III team, will represent the section at the state meet. The other scoring runners for Chico were junior Ty Thompson, who was seventh in 16:57, sophomore Rory Monninger, who was 16th in 17:22, and senior August Mavis, who was 24th in 17:43. The depth of the Panthers came through as Bretten Farrell, a consistent scorer for Chico during the season, struggles with the weather conditions did not derail the team's championship hopes.

The fact that the Panthers' cumulative time as a team at 84:35 - the five runners' times added together - ranks 16th all time for the West Valley course (& fastest by any Chico team) wasn't lost on their head coach Kevin Girt. "The effort was there. They were all in," Girt said. "They ran to win it." Although Emanuel, who fell short in his bid to win and was also second last year as a junior, was relishing that he'll have plenty of company at the state meet this time around at Woodward Park in Fresno later this month. "That's really what I care about the most," Emanuel said. "That's going to be an amazing experience for me and everyone." Girt agreed. "That's the perfect thing to say," Girt said. "There's nothing like taking a full team down there."

U-Prep second place finish made them the top D-V team, to make it four straight division championships and state berths for the Panthers of Redding. All five Panthers were in the top 30. Michael Cramer was 10th (17:06) Forrest Moore was 12th (17:14), Nathan Lervold was 13th (17:16), Adam Barsness was 18th (17:32) and Justin Matties was 29th (17:53). Yreka, despite placing fourth behind Shasta, won the D-IV team title for the fifth time in six years and also qualifies for the state meet along with D-IV rivals West Valley and Paradise. The number of teams for each division is based on recent performances and thanks to Yreka winning the state title a few years ago and West Valley finishing in the top 10 as well, the section gets three state berths for D-IV boys.

You couldn't write a better maiden cross country season for Shasta's Hana Hall. After a tenative start to the season, the freshman is now on a roll winning her last three races which now includes the section championships. Her victory combined with Skoy's in the boys race left the Wolves with the individual winners of both varsity races for only the second time in section history. Ethiopia native Hana Hall (19:32) is the adopted daughter of Sara and Ryan Hall of Redding according to Wolves coach Doug O'Brien. She is the first girl from Shasta to win the section championship since Krissy Look took three straight back in 1989-91. "Being a year and a half out from being in another country, you can't say enough about what she's done already," O'Brien said. "She believes in herself that she can do it and each race she gets a little stronger and a little stronger, and that's incredible for a freshman to do."

Led by Hall, Shasta took the girls Division III and its fourth overall team title, although the previous one was quite awhile ago (1989). Shasta had 66 points while Yreka was second with 112, Foothill third (119), Chico fourth (127), and West Valley fifth (159). "It was a team being a true team," O'Brien said. "They all train together and do everything together. There are no egos at all." Backing up Hall's top finish, the Wolves' had Miranda Avalos in sixth (20:23), Aislinn Matagulay was 15th (21:04), Isabelle Tate-Arevalo was 18th (21:05) and rounding out the scoring five was Emma Robles in 29th (21:42).

Girls 3 Mile Championship

Hall was the sixth freshman girl to win the section cross country title (but only the third on this course), meet director Scott Fairley said. Foothill freshman Grace Dudley, who led most of the middle miles, was second in 19:49. Senior's Red Bluff's Naomi Renfroe, Hamilton's Kelly Koehnen and Trinity's Karly Gutermuth were third (20:05), fourth (20:08) and fifth (20:08) respectively.

The area's top finisher in the girls' race was the D-V champion, Hamilton senior Kelly Koehnen. Koehnen known for an incredably dominant performance at the section track championships on the West Valley track last May where as a junior she swept the three distance races. On Thursday, she proved a bit more mortal, receiving a little help from Trinity's Karly Gutermuth, who was fifth among 142 runners, near the race's end. One of the early pace-setters, Koehnen was gassed by the heat and the course. "My body was gone. I was halfway down the stretch," she said. "My body was done by the end. I did all that I could." But Gutermuth saw that Koehnen was in trouble and took her left hand, and they finished the race side by side. "She grabbed my hand, and she was holding my hand, and we crossed the finish line together," Koehnen said. "I want to thank her for her spirit for reaching out to me."



While Shasta was clearly the team favorite going in, Yreka's runner up finish was not but the Miners successful battle with Foothill and Chico also garnered them their third straight the D-IV title and berth to the state championship meet Nov. 26 in Fresno. West Valley fifth place finish overall was enough for the Eagles to claim the other D-IV berth. Shasta is the girls D-III state qualifier and Trinity is the D-V qualifier.

The girls' race was also won by a Shasta runner, freshman Hana Hall. Foothill's Grace Dudley made it 1-2 for freshmen. Hall helped Shasta win both the overall team title with 66 points and the D-III championship to be the lone section squad at state. The Chico girls were fourth overall with 127 points. Panthers teammates Nahkia Clements and Jessalyn Ayars were 10th and 11th overall, both coming in at 20:44 on the 3-mile course with the freshman Clements getting 10th place and the senior Ayars receiving 11th as both qualified for state as individuals. The Hamilton girls were ninth overall with 229 points, and Pleasant Valley was 10th with 248. Durham was 12th with 285 among 16 teams.

Other state individual qualifiers among the girls from the area, which is broken up between Divisions III, IV and V although the section runs all divisions in one race, were: Las Plumas' Kaitlin Morgado, who was 12th overall in 20:50, Hamilton's Alicia Murillo, who was 19th in 21:08, and Durham's Ellie Coffee, who was 23rd in 21:19.

The depth of the Chico squad became even more evident after winning both junior varsity races that were run after the varsity races concluded. The Chico JV boys, undefeated all year, nearly swept the section race by claiming the first four places, six of first eight and eight of the top 12 as sophomore Victor Campanero wins for the first time this year. Chico's 17 points easily outdistanced cross town rival Pleasant Valley's 66, the only other team with less than 100 points.

While the Chico JV girls performance was not nearly dominant as the boys they still easily outdistanced the squads from Shasta (51), Corning (94) and Paradise (99) with their meager 32 point total. As like previous races on the season, the Pathers were led by Bella Snider (4th) and Cailin Dockendorf (7th). Top finishers in the race were Lassen sophomores Arianna Miranda and Mary Cizin who went 1-2, followed by Claire Durbin of Foothill.