Buchanan girls blaze past competition in Central Section cross country championship
The Buchanan High girls cross country team dominated at the Central Section championship Thursday as all seven of the Bears runners finished in the Top 9 overall of the Division I race.
Sydney Sundgren won the section championship and finished with the top time throughout all the girls divisions on the day. Sundgren completed the 5,000-meter race at Woodward Park in 17 minutes, 35.12 seconds.
Teammate Grace Hutchison took second and had the second-fastest time on the day at 17:39.44.
And Buchanan’s Elliana Lomeli placed third at 18:02.58, which also was the third-fastest mark of all divisions.
When it was over, the Bears finished with an average time of 17:57.47 to win the Central Section team title. Only the top five runners from each school are tabulated in the team scoring.
The Buchanan girls convincingly distanced themselves from second-place Clovis North, which had an average time of 18:41.60.
Clovis North’s Miliana Perez placed fourth overall in the race at 18:08.59 and teammate Ashlyn Leath was at 18:11.99.
On the boys side, Clovis’ Christopher Caudillo and Nathaniel Avila pushed each other to first and second-place finishes, respectively, as well as logged the two fastest times of the day.
Caudillo clocked out at 15:18.44 and Avila crossed the finish line at 15:25.19.
However, it wasn’t quite enough to push the Cougars to a team title as Clovis took fourth.
Madera South ended up as the team champion as five runners all finished in the top 20.
Alejandro Gutierrez was Madera South’s top performer, taking third place behind the two Clovis runners at 15:33.55.
The one-two running punch was more effective in the D-II race with Sanger’s Emanuel Salas and David DeLoera pushing each other until the finish line.
Salas clocked out with the third-best time of the day and the top time in the D-II race at 15:31.95.
DeLoera took second in the D-II race at 15:42.37.
And the Apaches won the D-II team title.
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 7:23 PM.
