WALNUT — Twenty-six cross country teams and eight individual runners from the Daily News area were involved in the CIF Southern Section Championships on Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.
The area teams had a strong showing, as 16 of them, in addition to six individual runners, advanced to the CIF State Championship meet Saturday, Nov. 29, at Woodward Park in Fresno.
Like the prelims last week, the CIF-SS Finals were held on the Mt. SAC rain course, which is mostly on flat pavement around the campus and finishes on the track in the football stadium. The traditional Mt. SAC cross country course is one of the more difficult cross country treks in the state with an ascent of 540 feet that involves several switchbacks.
Viewpoint was the big winner from the area as its boys and girls teams won CIF-SS Division 5 titles. The win for the boys team was their fourth straight section title.
UCLA signee Olly O’Connor of Viewpoint won the boys individual title in Division 5 with a time of 14 minutes, 18 seconds. He beat the second-place finisher by 13 seconds.
“It feels incredible to win the championship,” O’Connor said. “Last week I had a little knee issue pop up out of nowhere. That led to a lot of uncertainty today, but I’m just so grateful that I was able to push through that.”
The Viewpoint girls team had three runners finish in the Top 30 to clinch the Division 5 title.
Freshman Sofia Joh was the lone girls representative from Campbell Hall, and she won the girls individual title in Division 5 with a time of 17:44.
One of the stronger showings from the area came in the boys Division 4 race. Vin Krueger of Oaks Christian won the championship and three area runners finished among the top four finishers.
Krueger won with a time of 14:18 and Charles Abemayor of Harvard-Westlake finished right behind him in second in 14:19.
“It feels great to get the championship win,” Krueger said. “I had really been focused on working that third mile and our team executed perfectly.
“He (Abemayor) was going really hard those first couple miles and I knew if I gave it my all those last 400 meters I would have a shot.”
Oaks Christian freshman Sterling White finished fourth in Division 4 with a time of 14:26. The Oaks Christian boys team finished fourth overall and will be going for back-to-back Division IV state championships next week.
The Harvard-Westlake and Chaminade boys teams also qualified for the state meet in Division IV by finishing in the top seven teams Saturday.
The Oaks Christian and Harvard-Westlake girls teams also qualified in Division 4.
The Foothill League boys teams had a strong showing in Division 2. Hart and Saugus. along with Owen Souther of Canyon, qualified for the state championships. Adrian Cantu of Saugus finished in third with a time of 14:06 and Souther finished in seventh with a time of 14:17.
“It was a bit of a mixed bag today. Some guys ran exceptionally well and others struggled a bit,” Saugus coach Sergey Suschikh said. “Adrian played it smart and he just hung in there and made the big move at the end to finish top three.”
The Westlake girls team had a strong showing as it finished second in Division 2. The Warriors were led by freshman twin sisters Anais and Sabina Cruz, who finished in fourth and sixth place, respectively, with times of 16:40 and 16:53.
The Saugus and Newbury Park girls teams qualified for state in Division 2. Lucia Pearson of Saugus finished in seventh with a time of 16:54 and Sophia Grant finished in 16th for Newbury Park with a time of 17:19.
Three area boys teams also qualified for the state meet in Division 3. Oak Park, West Ranch and Agoura all finished in the top seven Saturday. Braulio Castillo of West Ranch finished third with a time of 14:23 and Dorian Bening of Agoura finished in fifth with a time of 14:27.
“We knew what we came out here to do, we really just wanted to punch it,” Bening said. “As a runner I would prefer the regular course, but seeing how flat the course today was I was able to just give everything I got that last mile.”
The Oaks Christian and Harvard-Westlake girls teams qualified for the state meet in Division 4. Oak Park’s girls team qualified in Division 3 with four runners finishing in the Top 30.
Cecilia Vasquez of Simi Valley and Jenna Murray of Moorpark individually qualified in Division 3. Vasquez finished in 10th place (16:56) and Murray finished in 13th (16:59).
Alexander Saade and Max Ceballos of Heritage Christian both individually qualified in Division 5. Saade finished in ninth (15:08) and Ceballos finished in 11th (15:13).