Historic run: McClatchy’s McNatt wins state high school cross country crown
Anna McNatt finished her fall cross country season in historic style.
The McClatchy High School junior won the CIF State Division I championship Saturday afternoon at Woodward Park in Fresno, using a late surge in an intense race to win the 5,000-meter race in 17 minutes, 8 seconds in ideal conditions.
McNatt is the first runner — boys or girls — from the Sacramento City Unified School District to win a CIF cross country championship. The CIF state meet has been held since 1987. No SCUSD girl has won a CIF State Track and Field race, though McNatt could threaten that bit of history in the spring. She was also the only Sacramento-area local runner, girls or boys, to win a state championship on Saturday
A 4.4-GPA student, McNatt was coming off a dominating effort to win the Sac-Joaquin Section D-I cross country championship, winning that race in 17:26.8, some 1:30 ahead of the second-place finisher. In Fresno, McNatt kicked it into another gear at the 200-meter mark, the final stretch, to hold off favored Sam McDonnell of Newbury Park, who was second in 17:09 and entered the weekend with the top time in the field.
In the girls’ D-III race, two-time CIF State champion Riley Chamberlain of Del Oro placed second to freshman Hanne Thomsen of Montgomery High in Santa Rosa. Campolindo edged Del Oro for the D-III team title, 109-120. Teams with the lowest point total win cross country meets.
Other local efforts: Tatiana Cornejo of St. Francis had a fifth-place showing in D-II in 17:54.6; Katie Kopec of Whitney placing seventh in D-II in 17:57.3; and Mahalia Quintana of Woodland took seventh in D-IV in 18:18.
The Oak Ridge girls placed third in D-I as a team and Granite Bay was third in D-II.
For the boys, Zachary Ayers of Davis was fifth in D-I in 14:55.6. Braden King of Jesuit was 10th in the D-I race in 15:15.7, Vacaville placed fifth in the D-II team standings and El Dorado was ninth in D-IV.
