State Championship Notes:

Notes and news from the San Diego Section teams at the California State cross country championships:

In BOYS racing:

POWAY'S boys team had a great pack (0:32 seconds from 1 to 5), but they also sped up their pack significantly, a big reason for their second place finish. In fact, Poway had three runners ahead of Mt. Carmel's number two runner at Fresno, a big improvement from previous meetings. Mt. Carmel won the San Diego Section championship meet a week earlier, and Poway had won the Palomar League championship (beating Mt. Carmel) a week before that.

GRANITE HILLS' soph Jason Finch was the first sophomore to finish the Division I race, taking 19th in 16:05.

RANCHO BERNARDO's Sean Ricketts (27th in 16:20 in Division I) was the fastest state meet freshman performer in any division. WEST HILLS frosh Evan Fox ran a good 16:42 in Division III.

POINT LOMA was running without number one runner Naithen Schirmer, who moved out of state during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

WEST HILLS had to reshuffle their lineup slightly at state when soph Paul Saccone turned up sick the day before the meet. Soph Matt Rendina (sick at CIF) rejoined the lineup, but ran below par at Fresno. Saccone ended up competing as well, but also was below par.

Most luckless San Diego team had to be RANCHO BERNARDO boys. They were unbeaten in Palomar dual meets (beating Poway and Mt. Carmel), and they were the top-ranked team in the section going into the championship meets. At the Palomar League meet, Rancho Bernardo tied for second with Mt. Carmel, but lost the position on a tie-breaker (sixth man). Poway won the meet, and RB lost a chance for a co-championship via the tie-breaker. A week later, Mt. Carmel was the hot team that won the San Diego Division I boys title. Rancho Bernardo and Poway tied for second, and Poway won the tie-breaker (sixth man), and was awarded the second state meet qualifying slot. Poway went on the narrowly miss the state title (by four points).

Noteworthy soph finishers in Division III included the SERRA twins. Marcus Chandler ran 16:00 and brother Marice Chandler was clocked in 16:09.

RAMONA's James Adams (who ran 16:46) has battled back problems since about mid-season. He originally pulled a back muscle doing speed work, and it often cramps during a race, including at Fresno.

Fastest local finisher in Division IV was MADISON senior Nick Hamlin, who was 13th in 16:13.

HOLTVILLE junior Miguel Ramirez had plenty left at the finish but couldn't improve his third-place finish (16:01). Ramirez was challenging for the lead in the first mile, but fell back in the second mile of the race.

In GIRLS racing:

SANTANA's Jaymie Harper was the only area girl to finish in the top ten in her division and make All-State. Harper was 7th in Division III in 18:48 for the 5K course. She wasn't the fastest Section runner, however. RANCHO BERNARDO's Julie Manson (frosh) ran 18:46 for 11th in Division I, and SCRIPPS RANCH's Emily McFarland (soph) ran 18:47 for 12rth in Division II. For Harper, however, it was a big improvement over her collapse the previous week in the section championship meet. The Santana senior held a lead going up the last hill, and fell on the final straightaway. She lost at least a minute of time, as she finished seventh in the Division III race. Her teammates, however, were impressive, as Kim Pace, Ava Benitez and Kim Baza took 1-2-3 in the section, giving Santana an easy team victory. Harper admitted her confidence level at Fresno led to a conservative effort in the state finals. Kim Pace was so unsettled by her unexpected CIF championship title that she refused to be acknowledged as the section champ during state meet pre-race introductions.

UNIVERSITY of SAN DIEGO enjoyed the services of 5:02-1600 meter runner Julie Ott for the first time all season at Fresno. Julie Ott ran the state course in 20:39 in her season debut, and she was the team's number two finisher on the day, running in Division IV.

In the Division I girls race, San Diego section girls took 11 of the first 50 places. Among the highest placers were RANCHO BERNARDO's Julie Manson (11, 18:46), ORANGE GLEN's Kendra Goffredo (14, 18:49), FALLBROOK's Tricia Mattson (16, 18:49), and FALLBROOK frosh Kim Croswell (18, 19:00). ORANGE GLEN's Katie Cottrell continued her late season comeback from a calf injury with a soid 19:40 effort. OG will return their top four girls (Goffredo, Cottrell, Cara Rumble and Lorena Jimenez) next year. Having off days at state were key runners Lorena Jimenez, of Orange Glen, (20:39) and Fallbrook's Kristen Brown (20:50). FALLBROOK, which missed placing third in the team standings by one point, will lose team leader Tricia Mattson (the section champ), but has most of the other elements of their team slated to return, and their quality ran to about nine girls on their roster.

San Diego Section girls were also well represented in the Division II girls race, placing nine in the first 45 runners. The best were SCRIPPS RANCH's Emily McFarland (12, 18:47), SCRIPPS RANCH's Kelly Grimes (14, 18:48), and VALHALLA's Andrea Clemons (18:50). Others having good efforts included SCRIPPS RANCH's Kristina Stasko (coming back from a broken leg, ran 19:34), and EL CAPITAN's Stephanie Kindreich (19:33). SCRIPPS RANCH will return McFarland, Grimes and Stasko to lead their team next year. VALHALLA will lose only Kelley Halligan from their top five runners, and they have good depth.