Heartbreak amid highlights for Fresno-area teams at CIF state cross country championships
So close for the Buchanan High girls cross country team.
The Bears endured heartbreak after the race at the California Interscholastic Federation state championships Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.
Even the public-address system announced, unofficially, that Bears had won a state team title.
That wasn’t the case as Buchanan came up short to Santiago Canyon, 57-58, snapping the Bears’ run of three straight state championships.
“Anytime when you go, when you’re so close to being on top, it’s a little disappointing,” Buchanan coach Brian Weaver said.
“I’m not disappointed in the girls and what they did and how they ran. They worked extremely hard the entire season. Second in state is still pretty good.”
The first Bears runner to cross the finish line on the 5,000-meter course was Tayler Torosian (17:54.2), who placed 11th, followed by Molly Sundgren in 12th (17:59.2).
Stefania Sesock placed 15th in 18:04.7 for Buchanan.
Bears star runner Elle Lomeli couldn’t finish the race because of breathing problems, something Weaver said they’ve been working with all season.
Lomeli, who was in the top 10 during the race, dropped out at the 1 1/2 mile mark, he said
This close for Immanuel
The Immanuel girls were another local team to post a strong showing, but also fall just short of a state title.
The Eagles were edged by Crystal Springs Uplands in a tiebreaker after both teams finished with 97 points.
“Losing a tiebreaker is heartbreaking,” Immanuel coach Conner Nolen said. “The thing is tough, it teaches us for the future. Every runner counts. Our girls fought. We still had a really good team performance.”
Immanuel sophomore Clara Riddle was a fifth-place finisher.
Her time was 18:30.3.
“It’s been a lot of hard work this season,” she said. “We’re happy that it’s the opportunity to race and to be out here. I just wanted to compete. We weren’t really looking into the outcome because that’s just in the Lord’s hands. We just came out here to compete and enjoy this opportunity.”
Yosemite overcomes adversity
It certainly didn’t seem the Yosemite boys had a strong run at the state meet on their minds.
The health of twins Ben and Jack Olney played a part in that because of hip problems earlier this year.
Added to that injury, Ben had a stress fracture during track season.
Yet both ran and helped the Badgers to a second-place finish (130) in the D-V race behind Crystal Springs (143).
“We went into the season knowing our top 2 runners were injured,” Yosemite coach Kim Lawhon said. “We just wanted to let them heal like they needed to heal. We just wanted to support them as best we could.”
Jack Olney said their teammates were what made them pull through and get through the cross country season.
He’s just relieved they were able to contribute the best they could.
“We really dug deep this year,” he said. “Kind of trying to work off each other. Our boys have done really well at keeping a strong head, keeping it highly motivated, which helped us stack up and work through.”
Jack Olney was the top Yosemite runner, finishing 21st (1556.0), and Ben Olney placed 58th (16:47.1).
Strong showings by other Fresno-area runners
Devin Ibarra of El Diamante came in third in the Division II race.
Ibarra had a time of 15:06.1, trailing only Aydon Stefanopoulos of Los Gatos (14:58.4) and Andreas Dybdahl of Santa Barbara (15:05.3).
The Clovis East boys team placed seventh in D-I.
The Timberwolves were led by Carter Spradling, who came in 23rd (15:26.4).
Clovis North’s Teg Pandher was sixth. His time was 15:05.4.
Evan Torres of Parlier was 13th in the D-IV race (15:38.7).
