Charlie Giannini, Chico boys win Northern Section Cross Country Championships
Hana Hall repeats as section champ while Foothill girls take team title

Thursday November 9, 2017
By Aaron Williams, Correspondent, Patrick Carr/Record Searchlight, edited & photos by Tom Cushman

COTTONWOOD, CA - Darkening skies and freshening south winds left early arrivals to the section championships wondering if rain would hold off until the racing was done. Such was not the case as it seemed like every time the starter's pistol went off Thursday at the Northern Section Cross Country Championships the skies opened up. The rain didn't matter for Chico's Charlie Giannini who ran to an individual section title in 15 minutes, 45 seconds over the 3-mile course at West Valley High School to remain undefeated against section competition for the season. "Oh I could feel it," Giannini said. "The weather; it was cold and the rain, (began) right as the race started." The Chico junior effort, a nine second improvement from earlier in the season, left him tied at eleventh best with Shasta Rudy Martinez on the all time course list.

In some respects the rain was a benefit as the blustery conditions during the warm-ups turned calm with the onset of precipitation. His first-place finish helped pace the Chico boys to their second team title and state berth at Fresno's Woodward Park in as many years with 55 points despite no other teammates in the top ten. Fellow Panthers Ty Thompson was 11th in 16:42, Bretten Farrell was 12th in 16:44, Rory Monninger was 14th in 16:49 and Riley Farrell was 18th in 16:59. Chico team time was among the best ever on the storied West Valley course, over a minute faster than their winning effort last year.

"I told myself I was going to sit back and not push the pace too much and then go hard after the first big hill," Giannini said. He said there was a pack bunched up at the one-mile mark, including second-place finisher Isaac Fernandez of Yreka (16:07). "That's when I made my move," he said. "Going up the last, longer hill he (Fernandez) wasn't too far off, but I started to surge ahead." After Fernandez, West Valley's Eric Morefield was third in 16:16, while Pleasant Valley's Kyle Johnson was two seconds back of Morefield in fourth. Las Plumas' Brian Hastings was fifth in 16:24.

The boys haven't faltered against section opponents this season despite featuring one senior - Ty Thompson - in its scoring ranks. "We're expecting a lot of success," Thompson said prior to the race. "We've definitely put in the work. We just have to do what we've been doing again, and it should turn out great." Giannini has been the Panthers' frontrunner, and he excelled on the course earlier this season at the West Valley Coed Invitational when the temperature was closer to summerlike than the rain that fall Thursday. The junior's 15 minutes, 54 seconds, effort on that day ranks in the top 20 all-time on the course over the past 25 years, West Valley coach Scott Fairley said. But the weather isn't the only challenge. The 3-mile course provides enough on its own with three separate hills in the middle portion. "It's a course meant for a strong runner," Bundy said. "I love hills." Giannini finished third last year behind Shasta's Andrew Skoy in first and teammate Jack Emanuel in second.

Boys 3 Mile Championship

Last week at Yreka High at the Northern Athletic League cross country championships Eric Morefield fell. He tried to get up and fell again. Then he fell again. The West Valley senior turned in a distant third place performance in the meet. Thursday in the pouring rain and mud was a different story. West Valley hadn't raced in the rain yet this year, but almost as soon as the varsity boys' race was about to start, Mother Nature chose that specific time to shower. "I thought I wasn't going to have a good race because of it, usually in the cold my forearms start locking up, it's not good," Morefield said.

Morefield moved through the chase pack to briefly advance into second coming off the course's final hill Thursday, before Yreka's Isaac Fernandez passed him back. Morefield had to keep it in high drive to maintain his position and hold off the rest of the field in what proved to be one of the more competitive section races with 18 runners finishing under 17 minutes. Morefield closed out the race in much less distant third place at the Northern Section Cross Country Championships held at his home course near the West Valley High campus. He held off Pleasant Valley's Kyle Johnson by two seconds and more importantly qualified for the state cross country meet later this month as he managed to not slip or fall despite the adverse conditions. (The course, outside of the start area, actually looked to improve because of the rain to this observer - TC). "I mean, that would be like the worst thing ever. Falling at league championships and then at sections too? That would not have been good," he said.

And while the rain subsided somewhat during the boys race, as soon as the girls began racing the skies again opened. And like Giannini, the rain didn't much bother U-Prep's Hanna Hall, who won the race going away in 18:20. U-Prep freshman teammate Grace Gaddy was second in 19:06 and Chico's Britta Bundy was third in 19:30. "I was not expecting third," a clearly disappointed Bundy said. "I was hoping for second, but at this point it's the race that I ran." The Chico junior said she was surprised at the pace set by Hall, a sophomore, and that it didn't match an earlier race the two ran. "The first mile I was surprised," Bundy said. "I was hoping to catch her a little more at the end." Separating from the pack in the second mile, Bundy said she wished her second-mile split was faster. "Toward the end, I knew I wasn't in striking distance," she said.

University Prep sophomore Hana Hall had raced just three times this season prior to the NSCIF Championships due to section transfer rules. She raced in the West Valley Coed Invitational in early October, the NAL Center Meet at Lassen a few days later and the NAL Center Meet in Anderson two weeks ago. Hall won all three times, a trend she continued Thursday by winning the NSCIF girls' championship race with a time of 18:20, 46 seconds faster than her U-Prep teammate, freshman Grace Gaddy, in second place. It wasn't evident from the start that Hall was going to win by nearly a minute, but eventually the race turned from "Who will win?" to "How much can she win by?" The (UPrep) Panthers' girls team and boys teams both qualified for the state cross country meet in Division IV. Foothill's girls team, which won last week's EAL Championships, won the team title Thursday and qualified for state as a Division III team by placing six runners in the top 14 spots.

Girls 3 Mile Championship

The Foothill girls took the overall team title with 44 points, followed by U-Prep (62), Shasta (76), Chico (111) and Pleasant Valley (156). In Division III, Chico boys and Foothill girls teams qualified for the state meet. In Division IV, the Yreka, U-Prep and Paradise boys teams qualified, as did the U-Prep and Yreka girls squads. In Division V, the Durham girls qualified as did the Hamilton boys. Individual boys qualifiers include: PV's Johnson, Donovan Freeman and Xavier Simms in Division III; West Valley's Eric Morefield,Las Plumas' Brian Hastings and Dymond Kostenko, Corning's Austin Mishoe, Enteprise's Avery Grady in Division IV; Willlows' David Gonzalez and Providence's James Reece, Fall River's Branden Taylor, and Joshua Hohberg and Mount Shasta's Griffin Hamann in D-VI. Individual girls qualifiers include: Chico's Bundy, Shasta's Aislinn Matagular and Lindie Larson, and Pleasant Valley's Kelsey Roach in Division III; Sutter's Mia Ashby, Central Valley's Jaycie Sundstrum, Las Plumas' Kaitlin Morgado, West Valley's Jasmyne Aragon and Toni Kostelec in Division IV; Trinity's Lauren Harper, Hamilton's Alicia Murillo, Big Valley's Hope Dodgen, Mount Shasta's Marissa Bonivert and Etna's Cassidy Gilmore in D-VI.

State qualifiers:

Boys team: Division III: Chico; Division IV: Yreka, University Prep, Paradise; Division V: Hamilton

Girls team: Division III: Foothill; Division IV: U-Prep, Yreka; Division V: Durham

Boys individual: D-III: Kyle Johnson (PV), Donovan Freeman (PV), Xavier Simms (PV); D-IV: Eric Morefield (West Valley), Brian Hastings (Las Plumas), Dymond Kostenko (Las Plumas), Avery Grady (Enterprise), Austin Mishoe (Corning); D-V: David Gonzalez (Willows), Branden Taylor (Fall River), James Reese (Providence), Joshua Hohberg (Providence), Griffin Hamann (Mount Shasta).

Girls individual: D-III: Britta Bundy (Chico), Aislinn Matagulay (Shasta), Lindie Larson (Shasta), Kelsey Roach (PV); D-IV Mia Ashby (Sutter), Jaycie Sundstrum (Central Valley), Kaitlin Morgado (Las Plumas), Jasmyne Aragon (West Valley), Toni Kostelec (West Valley); D-V Lauren Harper (Trinity), Alicie Murillo (Hamilton), Hope Dodgen (Big Valley), Marissa Bonivert (Mt. Shasta), Cassidy Gilmore (Etna).

The Chico JV squads almost matched winning scores in the open races (24-boys, 25-girls) held on the West Valley JV 2.2 mile course. The Panther boys' were led by Alan Nava (12:33) winning effort as they also put three in the top 4 and 5 in the top 10 to easily gap Foothill's second place effort, in a field that had over a hundred more runners than the girls race.

While the number of teams and competitors in the open girls race were way down from a year ago, up front the team battle was again between Chico and Shasta with the Panthers prevailing 25-47 although the Wolves' Terrina Carrier won the individual title in 15:32 over Chico's Calle Anderson (16:05) and Mia Caldera (16:07)