Chico girls, Shasta boys victorious at second league center meet
Chico's Jacob Graber, Enterprise's Natalie Ulloa reset course records
Hooker Oak Recreation Area, Bidwell Park
Wednesday October 22, 2014
By Joseph Shufelberger/Chico ER sportwriter
CHICO - The results were predictable even if the course wasn't. A new course at the Hooker Oak Recreation Area had some of the Eastern Athletic League cross country runners more concerned about which way to go during Wednesday's race, but in the end those expected to do well did.

Enterprise High sophomore Natalie Ulloa, who won the Northern Section championship as a freshman, crushed the competition in the girls' 3.1- mile race, finishing in 18 minutes, 35 seconds, besting the field by 1:12, and Chico's team, led by Celeste Wilson's third- place finish in 20:09, totaled 43 points to beat Shasta's second- place tally of 55.

In the boys' race, Chico's Jacob Graber cruised to a comfortable victory in 16:36, 16 seconds better than Shasta's Andrew Skoy on the same course as the girls. But Skoy had company - lots of it. The Wolves' Riley Davis was third in 16:56, Brent Hunter
(17:04) took fourth and Samuel Grafe (17:14) finished fifth. Not that Shasta needed it, but Noah Bland (17:26) took eighth, sending Shasta to a dominant 22- point total, easily outdistancing Chico's 52. " This year isn't really based about individual running for speed. We run as a pack," said Shasta senior and team captain Davis. "And we're able to win just because we're all so close."

The Pleasant Valley boys were third with 86 with Tony Hubbell placing sixth, a second behind Grafe at 17:15. Chico's Liam Monninger was another second back at 17:16 for seventh. Enterprise's Chris Prielipp (17:26) was ninth, and Paradise's Masen Becerril completed the top 10 in 17:29 in the 53-runner field. But none of them could catch Graber, who was contend to let other lead through the race's midway point then picked up his pace to pull away from the lead pack and come away with the win by a comfortable margin. " The first time I ran here I was quite a bit slower," said Graber, one of many Panthers who had at least some experience on the course. "On the second and third mile, I was able to pick it up more."

The girls' race was about how far ahead Ulloa would finish. The Hornet won the Northern Section Championship by more than 48 seconds as a freshman. The 5-foot sophomore is looking to do even bigger things this time around as she wants to improve on her 13th- place finish at state and break into the top 10. On Wednesday, negotiating the course was her lone challenge. " There were a lot of turns. I'm not very good at turns," said Ulloa, who crossed up the rest of the front-runners at a foothill but was in a good mood despite the mix- up. " I turned the wrong way, and I led them the wrong way."

Shasta's Hannah Davis took second in 19:47, and her teammate, Miranda Avalos, was fourth in 20:21 after Chico's Wilson. Paradise's Talia Swangler (20:43) finished fifth among the 55 runners. Red Bluff's Naomi Renfroe (20:44) was sixth before Chico's Jessalyn Ayars (20: 51) was seventh. Red Bluff's Daisy Brose (21:20) ended up eighth. Mae Huang (21: 24) was ninth for Shasta, but Ayars' teammates crossed in
succession with Malene Kavanagh (21:25) in 10th, Annie Jolliff (21:40) in 11th and Georgina Quinn (21:41) took 12th to complete Chico's scoring. Nicole Dully provided PV's top finish at 20th in 22:05.

Many runners were glad to get a crack at the new layout at Hooker Oak before the EAL Cross Country Championships, which are set for Nov. 6 at Hooker Oak. " It's definitely a good warm up for us because we'll be able to mentally have markers along the race course by distance and then by how the other teams ran," Wilson said.

Rounding out the team scoring the Red Bluff girls were third with 72, Enterprise fourth at 91, Paradise fifth 125 and PV ended up with 134 for sixth. The Paradise boys were fourth with 110 points. Red Bluff ( 121) was fifth and Foothill (143) was sixth. The Enterprise boys and Foothill girls had incomplete varsity teams.
Some editing provided by Tom Cushman