Valley runners state their case while tested by Woodward Park

How dominant are the Buchanan High girls cross country team, ranked as the best in California?

And, how did the Madera South High boys team pull a surprise in the Div. I race?

Plus, while the Sanger High girls dominated in Div. II, did their male colleagues pull out a victory in the same division?

Those questions were answered convincingly at the CIF Central Section Cross Country Championships under a mostly cloudy Thursday that crowned individual and team champions in 10 divisions.

▪  The Bears girls, led by juniors Sydney Sundgren and Grace Hutchison, wrapped up the schools’ 23rd team section title since 1993 with 19 points and easily outrunning league rivals Clovis North (51 points) and Clovis East (93).

▪  Madera South head coach Sky Fierro wasn’t concerned his runners weren’t hitting their stride early in the season, or that they didn’t have the individual firepower to bump elbows with the likes of Clovis High’s Christopher Caudillo or Nathaniel Ávila. The Stallions surprised the experts by capturing the team title (56 points) against Clovis West (71 points) and Clovis North (76 points).

▪  Sanger High head coach Sean Marzolf was biting his nails waiting to see the Div. II boys team results, then broke out in smiles seeing the Apaches post a 33-34 squeaker against San Luis Obispo. A couple of races later, he was more relaxed immediately after the Div. II girls race because Sanger coasted to a 27-point total, way ahead of Frontier (117 points) and Liberty of Bakersfield (118 points). Sanger was the only school to sweep the boys and girls team titles.

D1: Freshman demonstrates Buchanan’s depth

Sundgren and Hutchison posted the two fastest girls’ times of the day, as expected, with marks of 17:35.12 and 17:39.44.

However, it was freshman Elliana Lomelí who demonstrated her capabilities to power the high-power Bears with an 18:02.58 clocking, the third-fastest overall on the day.

It helps to have speed ahead of her.

“I wanted to stay with my other two teammates, Sydney and Grace,” said Lomelí. “We like working together a lot, and it really helps us out throughout the whole course.”

Lomelí, who broke 18 minutes at the TRAC meet on the same course, figures that “training with the best” will help her prepare for the Nov. 27 state meet on the same course.

“It really gives you that amount of confidence,” she said.

Clovis North senior Miliana Pérez and teammate Ashlyn Leath kept Buchanan from scoring a perfect 15 points by taking fourth and fifth places.

For Pérez, the race was redemption for the TRAC meet where she placed eighth.

“Honestly, coming back from not such good of a meet, I knew it was my attitude that was really going to fix my performance today,” said Pérez, who timed 18:08.59. “I went to training and continued to focus, and I just came in with a more confident attitude for this race.”

Matching up against Buchanan is a challenge that Pérez accepts.

“I have been in competition with Buchanan probably since my freshman year,” she said. “We’re going to continue to compete with them no matter how high their ranking gets, and no matter how fast they are. We’re just going to continue to keep challenging them.”

In the boys competition, the 1-2 punch of Caudillo and Ávila grabbed the spotlight with their times of 15:18.44 and 15:25.19. In the TRAC meet, Ávila beat Caudillo.

Thursday, the tables were reversed.

“I was out for about four days because of an injury (pulled right hamstring) and the TRAC meet was the day I came back,” said Caudillo. “So I definitely came into it not fully confident and I was out of shape quite a bit.”

Thursday, Caudillo kept a slight lead throughout the race against his teammate.

“We push each other every day. He’s basically my brother,” said Caudillo about Ávila. “We’re always talking to each other, always pushing ourselves. We just never let each other back down.”

Ávila admitted his body was “a little tired today.”

“It didn’t feel like last week,” he said. “This time I had to push myself a little bit harder just to get the same time (about 3 seconds slower).”

In the end, it was Madera South’s day. Senior Alejandro Gutiérrez (third, 15:33.55) and junior Dylan Devine (sixth, 15:44.11) led the Stallions to the team title.

It worked out exactly how head coach Fierro planned it.

“We knew back in August we weren’t going to be up there with the big names and have fast times early on,” said Fierro. “But we knew if we stuck to the plan and every race we saw improvements, we saw personal records coming, the team was starting to buy into each other.”

They bought into the training program “and started believing even more in themselves,” said Fierro.

“Coming into this race, we knew we could win it if they just went in and did their job.”

Mission accomplished.

D2: Sanger boys claim first Valley title since 1999

On paper, San Luis Obispo should have won. The team placed five runners among the top 10, and had a team average of 16:01.65.

Sanger had three runners in the top 10 – seniors Emanuel Salas (first, 15:31.95) and David DeLoera (second, 15:42.37) and sophomore Daniel Galvez (sixth, 15:55.33) – and posted a team average of 16:04.01.

The top finishes by Salas and DeLoera proved the difference.

“I just wanted to be able to compete and get my team to be No. 1 for Valley,” said Salas, who finished second to DeLoera in the league meet the previous week. “I didn’t have any big expectations. I was just going to go out there and do my best.”

He called his competition against DeLoera one that started in middle school a “friendly” one.

Marzolf, the coach, said the team “did what we need to do.”

“We knew we had a shot, but we knew we had to run well and perform. The kids ran tremendously,” said Marzolf. “We think we have the team peaking at just the right time for state.”

The girls team – led by senior Nía Lamas (second, 18:50.99), junior Leah Mendibles (fourth, 18:55.6), senior Sienna Bianchi (fifth, 18:59.61), and senior Nereyda Álvarez (sixth, 19:04.71) – took out all of the suspense as to who would win the team title.

“Going in, we knew we were the favorites, but we just wanted to go out there and do what we can do,” said Marzolf. “Honestly, I don’t think it was our best day. I think we have better races in us.”

Wire to wire for Farmersville’s Ávila, Highland’s Torrecillas

Farmersville High senior Julissa Ávila ran mostly along in winning the girls Div. IV race in 19:19.71. Runnerup Illiana Murguía of Nipomo was a distant second in 19:53.09.

“My game plan was just to go off the time and then also have someone to chase,” said Ávila, a senior. “When I first started, I was with the first-place girl, but once I hit the hills, that’s when I took off and tried my best not to let her catch up.”

Ávila took about a minute off her personal-best time.

Like Ávila, Highland High sophomore Mía Torrecillas had little competition as she won the girls Div. III title in 18:24.14. Teammate Lianna Guerra, a junior, was second in 18:42.22.

“I’m pretty happy, but I didn’t PR,” said Torrecillas, “which is kind of a bummer.”

Other highlights

East Bakersfield High senior Nathanael Rodríguez started out fast and led throughout until the final half-mile when Mission Prep senior Patrick Thomas overtook him and won the boys Div. IV race in 16:15.03.

“Starting out fast wasn’t my game plan,” said Rodríguez, who placed second in 16:20.05. “I expected the Mission Prep guys to go out faster.”

Rodríguez said he wanted to save energy for the finish but didn’t have enough left to break the 16-minute mark.

▪  Central High senior Guillermo López took second in the boys Div. III race in 16:05.93, behind Templeton High senior Joshua Bell (15:52.34). He was hoping to break into the 15s.

▪  Liberty High of Madera, led by senior Emilio Ortega (second, 17:59.73) captured the boys Div. V title with 66 points, ahead of Riverdale (78 points) and Central Valley Christian (81 points).

▪  Senior Joshua Alcalá-Ceballos (fifth, 16:24.95), junior Carter Mendes (sixth, 16:26.79) and junior Joseph Flores (16:32.0) paced Tulare Western to the boys Div. III title.

The top two boys and girls teams in each division qualify for the state meet, but boys Divisions I and III and girls Div. I will advance a third team.

The top five individual finishers not on a qualifying team who finish in the top 12 also qualify for state. Individuals in the top 14 in boys Divisions I and III and girls Div. I also advance.