While there were no team or individual championships produced by South County qualifiers at this year’s state cross country championship meet Nov. 27 in Fresno, there were quite a few satisfying finishes to the season.
Hilltop, the reigning Division III boys champions, placed 11th as a team while senior Jimmy Byland, the 2021 Metro Conference champion, finished 14th among the 207 runners in the race. His time of 15:39.4 was a personal record at the 5K distance.
Byland the led at the mile marker but the pack caught up to the Hilltop runner near the two-mile mark.
“I was very proud of my team’s performance,” Hilltop head coach Chris Gentry said. “Hilltop finished the race as San Diego’s best Division III cross country team. Jimmy Byland started the race off strong, and he led the race until the two-mile mark. Some of my runners got boxed out and behind groups of runners at the start of the race and it affected their overall time/performance.
“The first mile was very fast as I told my runners it would be. The state course is mostly flat and a speed run. I told them to go out fast and find their pace. There were a lot of great teams at state. We were honored to be a part of this event.”
“It’s a wicked course with a huge funnel that blocked out the runners if you weren’t in the front of the pack,” Hilltop assistant coach John Salts said. “Our boys got caught in the funnel. We beat Cathedral Catholic and all other San Diego teams to finish as the top team from San Diego. It was a great time for the team.”
Hilltop’s other scorers included senior Miguel Tisnado (38th in 16:06.3), senior Eddie Castaneda (103rd in 16:54.7), senior Sebastian Vieyra-Gomez (106th in 16:55.9) and junior Malachi McCoy (160th in 17:44.6).
Non-scorers Christopher Bassig, a senior, finished 1634rd in 17:45.6 while junior Luis Mejia finished 197th in 18:43.1.
The Lancers tallied 316 points in the race, placing immediately arrears of 10th-place Capistrano Valley (275 points) and ahead of 12th place Tulare Western (325 points).
Cathedral Catholic, the San Diego Section runner-up, finished 13th in the team standings with 344 points. El Capitan, the third-place section team, finished 22nd among the 23 scoring teams with 494 points.
West Torrance won the state title with a division low 57 points. Tamalpais senior Caden Carney crossed the finish line in 15:04.6 as the individual division champion.
Byland finished seven seconds out of a top 10 finish.
Horse power
Otay Ranch, the reigning Division I boys champions, placed 16th as a team while placing two runners in the top half of the 180-deep field.
“It was an incredibly fast race, and we were very happy to have had very fast times,” Mustang coach Julian Valdez said. “Our strength all year has been our ability to run in a tight pack, and we accomplished that all year, even on the biggest stage. Those kids deserve all they praise they have earned, and I could not be prouder of them.
“Throughout the entire season, they never lost to a San Diego Division I team, and beat every team in the county at least twice. We lose a lot of great talent, but our juniors and younger guys are motivated to keep running for one another.”
Junior Jake Shorey led Otay Ranch on the state course with a time of 16:16.8 to place 76th among individuals. Senior Diego Vizcarra was next up with a time of 16:24.5 to place 88th.
Junior Jacob Juden finished 103rd in 16:33.1 while senior Ruben Baza Carrillo finished 109th in 16:36.0. The Mustangs’ fifth scorer, senior Aydan Wohlford, finished 124 in 16:44.0.
The team’s five-man spread was less than 24 seconds.
Otay Ranch totaled 394 points, placing ahead of Torrey Pines (20th overall) with 503 points. Newbury Park senior Colin Salman won the division’s individual championship in 14:26.5.
Newbury Park placed the top four runners in the race, all of whom finished within four seconds of another, to easily win the state title with 16 points. Great Oak was a distant second with 119 points.
South County also had two individual qualifiers: sophomore Joshua Dunphy from Mater Dei Catholic High School and senior Valencio Coco from High Tech High Chula Vista.
Coco placed 30th out of 202 finishers in the Division V boys race with a time of 16:40.1
Dunphy placed 100th out of 209 finishers in the Division IV boys race with a time of 17:06.
Francis Parker senior Kenan Pala won the Division V boys race in 14:51.0. He went on to place second at last weekend’s Eastbay West Regional meet at Mt. San Antonio to qualify for Saturday’s 42nd annual Eastbay national championship meet at Balboa Park’s Morley Field.
Pala and Santa Fe Christian senior Mark Trammell (third at the Division V boys state finals) will both represent the West team at Saturday’s elite finals after Trammell finished eighth at the regional qualifier.
The top 10 placers advanced from the regional.
Saturday’s webcast begins at approximately 8 a.m. for the event. The girls race is scheduled to start at 9:15a.m., followed by the boys race at 10 a.m. The awards ceremony is set for 10:30 a.m.
For more information, visit the website at www.eastbayxc.com as well as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
