PALO CEDRO, CA -- On a cool but sunny fall day with a light but persistent northerly breeze, six teams gathered at Foothill high school for the Eastern Athletic and Sacramento River league cross country championships for both varsity and junior varsity. Heading into the meet, Pleasant Valley was leading the varsity boy's competition after winning both center meets. While for the girls, Foothill held a one point lead over Chico by virtual of the Cougars finishing second at the center meet held in Chico while the Panthers were third at the first center meet held at Foothill since both won their home center meet.
The JV races were first to run. Following an early race snafu where most of the field in the JV girls race took a wrong turn that momentarily left the leaders in the back of the field, the Chico girls worked steadily to the front to come away with a dominant win. The Panthers placed five runners in the top six as Sienna Jones out kicked her teammate Reese Alvistur for the win.
No wrong turns for the JV boys as Chico used team depth to overcome challenges by Pleasant Valley and Foothill. While top runners for the Panthers faded from contention for the individual win, they nevertheless managed to take seven of the top 11 places to come way with the team title. Up front, PV's Justin Plummer surged away late to win over Foothill's Owen Smith and teammate Quentin Clarke.
Up next were the varsity girls running on a course that traverses the only hill twice (compared to the JV's once). A conservative start made for a large lead pack consisting of 4 runners from Chico, 3 from Foothill, plus PV's Chloe Alchin and Shasta's Elizabeth Merrill. Coming off the more gentle side of the hill, the lead pack was whittled down to four. Merrill, Alchin, Chico's Ava-Marie Csutoras and Jasmine Corliss, an exchange student running for Foothill (and winner of the first center meet). The lead pack emerged from the woods from the second pass through the woods intact and with a sizeable advantage over a completely splintered chase pack where three Chico runners (Jeffords, Clemente, Navarette) had gapped the Foothill contingent.
The final ascent of the hill saw Merrill bust open the race, leaving Csutoras and Corliss contending for second and Alchin out the back in fourth. The last pass through the woods saw Merrill maintain her lead with Corliss pulling away from Csutoras to finish in the runnerup spot. Jeffords closed well but couldn't quite catch Alchin who held on for fourth. Teammates Clemente and Navarette finished next, leaving the Panthers with 4 runners in the top seven and 6 in the top twelve to win by a comfortable margin over second place Foothill. Thus Chico was able to tie Foothill for the overall league title.
The varsity boys were the last race of the day. Like the varsity girls race, a large lead pack exited the woods on their way to the steep ascent of the opening hill. The pack, composed of six runners from Chico, five from Pleasant Valley and a couple from Enterprise stretched out considerably coming off the hill. Heading into the second go around in the woods the lead pack was down to seven (PV's Jackson Hein, Mark Velazquez-Patino & Mark Doud, Chico's Charlie Brennan, Carter Murphy and Matt Anderson, Enterprise's Elijah Magrini) with Hein mostly doing the leading.
The lead pack broke open cresting the hill for the second time with Jackson Hein firmly in control by the time he returned to the flats. Five meters back Brennan and Magrini were locked in a battle for second. Another five meters back Velazquez-Patino and Murphy were mixing it up for fourth with Anderson in sixth and Doud in seventh struggling to stay in contention.
Hein closed well to win while Brennan emerged next from the woods to claim second and garner his first win over Magrini. Hein is the first sophomore to win the league championships since Enterprise's Domenic D'Acquisto did so in 2008. Murphy outdueled Velazquez-Patino for fourth while Anderson stretched his lead over Doud to place sixth. In the big surprise of the day, Panther Carson Sasaki (despite placing 23rd & 21st in the two league center meets) finished eight leaving Chico needing only one more to complete a team. It was not to be as the next two finishers were Vikings (Nolan McLaughlin, Austin Hein) that completed the scoring for Pleasant Valley. Then came a late sprint that got Enterprise's Jacob Wagner by Chico's fifth (Diego Gonzalez-Carbajal). Still a very close race between cross-town rivals, In fact it couldn't be any closer as they tied the Vikings at 32 pts. The tie was broken using the 6th man rule which the Vikings won 13 to 16 the places their respective sixth man finished.
