The St. Francis boys cross country team found itself in familiar territory Saturday, cruising its way toward a second consecutive CIF Southern Section Division 4 team title on the Mt. San Antonio College 3-mile rain course.
The Golden Knights placed five runners in the top 27, with Sam Franco leading the way with a time of 14 minutes, 39.8 seconds for a sixth-place finish overall.
Auge Martin finished in 15th (14:54.3), Aidan Guzman finished in 19th (15:03.2), Luke Metcalf in 20th (15:04.7) and Alex Gonzalez in 27th (15:19.6).
St. Francis finished with a team score of 82 points, substantially ahead of second-place JSerra (119 points). Oaks Christian finished in sixth with 160 points and Harvard-Westlake finished seventh with 173 points.
Oaks Christian and Harvard-Westlake joined St. Francis in advancing to the CIF State meet in Fresno on Saturday, Nov. 25
On the girls side, Saugus finished in third place in Division 1 and qualified for the CIF State meet.
Saugus’ Lucia Pearson came in with a time of 17:11.9 for the No. 15 spot. Anna Mark finished in 21st place with a time of 17:27.8 and Makenna Blum came in 35th at 18:01.6.
There was one point separating third and fifth place, a detail Saugus head coach Kevin Berns emphasized to his team.
“We preach every point counts. Makenna (Blum) for example, she’s passing four runners. Mikaila Whitman (18:44.9) in the last mile passing seven runners,” Berns said. “Every point matters.”
The Saugus girls team returns to the state championships for the first time since 2019. Last year the Centurions were close to qualifying with almost the same team as this year, but a couple of the runners got sick the night before which put an end to the season.
“It’s sweet revenge and to be able to do it with the same team later,” Berns said. “It’s a credit to them to be able to do what they did and to finish third. It was pretty special.”
While there were a handful of repeat winners this year, they did so on a different course. A day before the competition, the CIF-SS announced a switch from the hilly course that is normally used to a flatter course due to a forecast of rain.
The rain never came, but the course change didn’t disrupt the top contenders.
“You look at the rain course and it’s a flat and fast course. Our objective for us on Saturday was to get out fast but not reckless,” Berns said. “Lucia (Pearson) did that, took advantage of the course and stepped it up. You just have to go with it. We have some girls that prefer the flat, fast course and girls that prefer hills, so It was a good balance for us.”
Oaks Christian’s Payton Godsey won her third straight crown, finishing with a time of 16:12.7 in Division 4.
The Oaks Christian girls team finished in second with 79 total points. Along with Godsey’s top finish, Grace Geyer recorded a time of 17:26.8 for the 8th spot and Elizabeth Walker finished in 14th place (17:48.3).
In Division 3 boys, West Ranch (second place), Oak Park (fourth place) and Moorpark (sixth place) all advanced to the state finals.
The Oaks Christian and Harvard-Westlake boys teams both advanced to the state meet in Division 4.
Joining the second-place Oaks Christian girls team is the Harvard-Westlake girls team, which finished in sixth in Division 4.
The Viewpoint boys squad won its second consecutive Division 5 team title. The Viewpoint girls team will join them at state after a fourth-place result.
Led by Cassidy Kajita’s sixth place result (17:23.9), Thousand Oaks made the state final in Division 3 with a seventh-place team finish.