11.09.07
Four local runners win individual titles
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Four local runners win individual titles
Three schools capture team titles
By JEFF EVANS, Californian staff writer, e-mail: jevans@bakersfield.com | Thursday, Nov 8 2007 11:29 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Nov 8 2007 11:29 PM
At the 1-mile mark, Foothill High’s Chris Schwartz was among a pack of nine runners.
At 2 miles, it was down to a pack of five.
And then he made his move.
Gaining speed on a downhill slope to pull away, Schwartz maintained the lead the rest of the way to win the Central Section Division I individual cross country title Thursday with the fastest time of the day, a 15-minute, 31-second mark over the 3.1-mile course at Woodward Park.
Schwartz said it was the hardest he’s been pushed this year. Clovis-Buchanan’s Jonathan Sanchez was second in 15:33. Schwartz even took a peek over his left shoulder to see where Sanchez was as the finish line approached.
“I wasn’t sure (about the win) until the finish line,” said Schwartz, who failed in his goal to set a personal record for the Woodward Park course. His lifetime best on the course remains a 15:21.
“So I’m kind of upset, but happy, too, to win,” he said.
Schwartz was one of four individuals from Kern County to win section titles. The others were Centennial’s Brant Jones in Division II boys, Delano’s Brianna Diaz in Division II girls and Shafter’s Cassandra Salazar in Division III girls.
Centennial was a double winner, capturing both the boys and girls team titles for Division II. Shafter made it back-to-back wins in girls Division III and McFarland’s boys won their 17th straight section title by capturing the Division IV title.
Jones led a Centennial boys team past favored Highland. The Golden Hawks also had Angel Moreno (paper was wrong Angel runs for Highland) place fourth and Jim Diller took ninth. Centennial scored 52 points to Highland’s 59.
“We knew our fifth guy (Chris Whitaker) had to run tough,” said Centennial coach Ron Jones. “Highland’s depth is a big difference and we needed a strong effort from him to help offset it.”
Whitaker wound up 23rd, with the other scoring Hawks’ runners in the top 16.
“They pushed out faster than we liked,” Highland coach Rick Mayberry said. “We like the first mile to be 5:15 or 5:20 to keep our pack together, but today it was a 5:07 or 5:08, so our guys got a little separated. But our guys recovered. They ran well.”
McFarland’s boys dominated as usual in Division IV. Cougar runners placed second, third, fifth, sixth and 10th to score 26 points. Avenal was a distant second with 61. McFarland’s true target is the school’s 10th state title two weeks from Saturday, also at Woodward Park.
“I wanted to see us put seven in the top 10,” said McFarland coach Amador Ayon. “For some reason, we didn’t have the ‘zap’ we’ve had in the past. But we’ve got bigger and better things in the next couple of weeks.”
Twenty-eight seconds separated McFarland’s first through fifth runners. “I want our first guy to go 10 to 15 seconds faster, and everyone move up from there,” Ayon said.
Delano’s Diaz had a comfortable lead by the halfway point of her Division II race and won in 19:38, nearly 30 seconds ahead of runner-up Allysa Mejia of Reedley, who led at the 1-mile mark.
“I did not expect to win,” she said. “I expected some Centennial girls to beat me.”
Diaz passed Mejia going downhill and opened it up on the next climb. Centennial won the Div. II girls title by placing five in the top 10, including spots 7-10. It was the Golden Hawks’ fifth section title in eight years.
“We work on that pack all year,” said coach Randy Jones. “Having that pack with times that close makes it tough for anyone to beat us. They ran really well.”
Lizzy Baker-Steimer, who was Centennial’s second runner in, raised both arms in the air when she saw her three teammates right behind her, knowing that clinched the team title.
“We knew we were going to do it,” she said. “We all work together to get the job done.”
Shafter, an underdog to Oakhurst-Yosemite, Madera South and perhaps Visalia-Mount Whitney in Division III, repeated with a 62 score. Yosemite was second with 73.
Senior Salazar and junior Elizabeth Wittenberg from Shafter placed 1-2, with times of 19:43 and 19:53, respectively. Last year, Wittenberg edged Salazar in Shafter’s 1-2 individual finish. Frontier’s Halle Meadows was third in 20:08.
“We try to encourage each other, we push each other,” Salazar said. “I heard the girl from Frontier was good.”
Last year, three of Shafter’s top five runners were seniors. They were replaced by freshmen this season, Lindsee Handel, Mayra Torres and Katerina Plaza.
“I knew we had a good chance to win,” said Shafter coach Terry Lewis. “But I was skeptical because we were asking freshmen to go 3-4-5 for us, and you don’t know how they’ll do in this, which is probably the biggest race of their lives. They responded to the challenge.”
Candace Carlson from North, the dominant girls runner in Kern County this year, placed fourth in the Division I race in 19:04, which trailed two runners from Clovis and another from Clovis West.
Carlson’s time was a personal best for the Woodward Park course, but she had to battle through a painful hip cramp that flared up after the halfway point.
“I’m surprised about that,” said Carlson, who said her previous best on this course was a 19:20. “That’s hard to fight through.”
At the 1-mile mark, Carlson was among a group of six in the lead. “They started pulling away about the 11/2-mile mark,” she said.
The pain subsided somewhat when Carlson got to the flat final stretch of the race. “It still wasn’t great, but not as bad as right there,” she said, pointing to the 2-mile marker.
She said her goal was 18:30, which would have made her competitive with winner Meghan Marvin of Clovis, who clocked 18:26.
Stockdale’s Ashley Nolasco, who sat out the Kern County Championships because of a sore left knee, began limping badly after she crossed the finish line. She placed 14th in 19:57, the second-fastest Kern County athlete in the Division I race. She missed qualifying for the state meet by six seconds.
“I was just focusing on the runner ahead,” she said. “When I stopped running, that’s when the pain started throbbing. And it wasn’t just my knee. It rushed down my leg.”
