Cross Country: Saugus girls, Hart boys extend Foothill League winning streaks

SANTA CLARITA — The Saugus girls team clinched its fourth straight cross country Foothill League title and the Hart boys won their third straight league title in the Foothill League Finals Thursday morning at Central Park. Braulio Castillo of West Ranch was the individual winner of the boys race with a time of 15:20.90 and freshman Reese Ray of Valencia won the girls race with a time of 19:04.50.

The league title was a bittersweet one, though, for Saugus, as their top runner, Annika Mark, was leading the race and suffered an injury as she was in the final stretch and was not able to finish. Jersey Baker finished in second place for Saugus with a time of 19:24.80 and Amanda Yanez finished in fourth for Saugus with a time of 19:55.30.

“We have a runner that went down and I feel bad for her. It’s not about the team right now, it’s about supporting Annika and making sure she’s healthy.” Saugus coach Kevin Berns said.

Hart won the boys team title with three runners finishing in the top six places. Josiah Himsl led the way, finishing third with a time of 15:24.20, and Samuel Aina and Miles Prante followed behind him, finishing in fifth and sixth with times of 15:44.00 and 15:50.40, respectively.

“It feels great to help the team win another league title. I finished fifth in prelims so it feels great to move up two spots also.” Himsl said.

The top three of the boys race was very tightly contested between Castillo, Himsl and also Owen Souther of Canyon, who finished in second. All three were bunched together towards the end of the race, but Castillo was able to separate himself from the pack to win by 20 seconds. Souther beat Himsl by a tenth of a second, finishing with a time of 15:24.10.

“This is what we’ve been training for throughout the entire season,” Castillo said. “Being in a tight pack in the end is not really necessarily my thing, but I think I just wanted it more than they did and it showed.”

Ray won the girls race for Valencia to help lead them to a second-place finish in league with Emily Farrell finishing in fifth for Valencia with a time of 19:58.00. The Hart girls finished third with Sasha Berry finishing in third place with a time of 19:48.40 and Kaitlyn Cottrill finishing sixth with a time of 20:01.00.

“It feels amazing to win the league title and I’m so excited to see what I can achieve,” Ray said.

Castillo led the West Ranch boys team to a second-place team finish. Cameron Povletich was the Wildcats’ second-best runner, finishing in eighth place with a time of 15:56.00 and West Ranch also had three runners who finished in 15th-17th place.

Valencia finished third with Luis Torres Orrala and Miles Archie leading the way, finishing in seventh and ninth place. Adrian Cantu of Saugus, who won the league prelim meet in September, rounded out the top five boys finishers in fourth place with a time of 15:38.21.