PALO CEDRO, CA -- Much better conditions greeted competitors gathering at Foothill High for the EAL-SRL Cross Country Championships then first league center meet contested on the same course a little over a month ago when temperatures were hovering a little over the century mark. This time, despite abundant sunshine, readings were thirty degrees cooler. Off first were the JV races starting with the girls. Chico dominated as 11 of the 12 Panthers, composing a third of the field, finished in the top 18 (half). Led by freshman Samatha Moreno-Delgado, Chico took seven of the top ten places and six of the first seven places to win with a low score of 18 points. Only two other schools had complete teams, host Foothill second with 55 points and crosstown rival Pleasant Valley third with 64 points.
The JV boys were up next. An aggressive start by a trio of Viking sophomores, Juan-Rigby Lugo, Owen Johnson and Brendan Cashman allowed them to take control of the race and make everyone else to play catch up. Cashman faded some midrace and was passed by a couple Panthers before rallying in the final loop around the forest to return to the third spot and making it impossible for Chico to avoid losing for the third straight league race. As ii was, it was painfully close each time as Chico lost by 5, then 2 and finally 3 points. This time around the Chico scoring five despite taking places 4 through 8 and ahead of PV's fourth with another six more finishing (but only one displacing) before PV's fifth runner came in 16th.
40 girls lined up for the start of the varsity girls race with over a quarter of the field made up of Panthers. The early lead pack of four runners, two from Chico, Taylor Wellersdick and Ava-Marie Csutoras, one from Pleasant Valley, Holly Alchin and the two-time defending league champion, Shasta senior Elizabeth Merrill. They remained tight as they approached the course's prominent hill for the initial time. Merrill had won the first league center meet but battling injuries since then has left her struggling to maintain her fitness. Wellersdick has been running with much more confidence as health issues with her teammate (Csutoras) emerged, won the second center meet. Alchin had her own struggles with fitness thanks to painful calves that only recently have gotten better. A large chase pack followed the leading four. Among them were five from Chico Harper Ducale, Lillian Jeffords, Molly Shewey, Reese Alvistur and Kelan Payne. One Viking freshman, a rapidly improving Emily Arnold, Aralynn Winstead-Stroing from Red Bluff, Foothill's Sienna Belong and finally Shasta's Dixie Lee. The lead four remain in lock step coming down the hill while the chase pack has splintered some. Emerging from the woods the second time, Merrill is having trouble staying in the lead group and after cresting the hill, Csutoras is losing contact as well. Heading into the woods the final time Alchin and Wellersdick remain close. But unlike at the second center meet Alchin is the one to unleashes an unmatched kick to gap Wellersdick and cruise unpressed to the finish line.
Csutoras rallies and finishes a relatively close third, Merrill is almost caught by a hard charging Ducale with Arnold also closing well. Winstead-Stroing holds off Jeffords and Shewey for seventh with Foohtill Sienna Belong rounding out the top ten. Chico wins easily with their five scorers in the top ten. Pleasant Valley edges Foothill by a couple points with Shasta and Red Bluff are a more distant fourth and fifth. Enterprise did not have a complete team.
The varsity boys lined up for the final race on the day. Emerging through the gate after the practice ballfield start, runners from Foothill had jumped to an early lead but one quick pass through the woods and those pretender ambitions were easily dashed. The Vikings had asserted their superiority with control of the lead pack in the feet of a trio of Vikings, Jackson Hein, Quentin Clarke and Nolan McLaughlin. Not too far behind were teammates Justin Plummer, Lucas Jimenez, Mark Doud and Grady Denman. Chico was conspicuous in the presence as well with Larson Cooper, Nigel Daly, Kenton Girt, Emiliano Ibanez and Nathan Gist in the mix. Shasta's Micah Good and well as most of the early leaders from Foothill. The initial transit of the hill strung out the pack, dropped all the Cougars while leaving a chase pack of Girt, Gist, Ibanez, Daly, Jimenez and Good coalescing behind the lead trio of Hein, Clarke and McLaughlin with a motivated Plummer stuck in widening gap in between.
After another pass through the woods and a second, reverse transit of the hill Hein, Clarke had gapped McLaughlin then came Plummer followed by Girt holding a small advantage over Ibanez and Jimenez and a bigger gap over teammates Gist and Cooper. Into the woods the final time, Hein opens some daylight over Clarke while McLaughlin and Plummer hold their position. Behind them, places are much more fluid but eventually Ibanez jumps to the lead of the chase group and improves his advantage through to the finish depriving the Vikings of a sweep as Jimenez needs a late kick to edge Shasta's Good as both pull away from Cooper and Girt. Rounding out the top ten, Gist holds off cross town rivals Denman and Doud while Daly, Chico's last scorer, fades to 13th.
Pleasant Valley, in winning, does so with a meager total of 16 points, 29 points better than second place Chico. further behind Shasta total of 88 points makes them third, one point better than Foothill. Finishing out the scoring finds Enterprise's 155 points to leave Red Bluff last with 175 points.
Up next is the section final with berths to the state meet on the line. The meet will be on the storied West Valley course that has been in play since 1992.
