Newbury Park cross country teams add to their CIF-Southern Section title haul

He’s a senior bound for powerhouse Stanford. He’s the No. 3-ranked runner in the county.

But considering the elite competition from his teammates over the past four years, Lex Young hadn’t actually been credited with winning a race of consequence.

That changed Saturday morning, when the Newbury Park High senior won the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 title in 14 minutes, 38.1 seconds after finishing side by side with his twin brother Leo Young.

“It was luck that the camera saw my body first,” Lex explained.

Lex Young, Leo Young and fellow senior Aaron Sahlman finished first, second and third, respectively, as the Newbury Park boys won the Division 2 team title.

“I felt pretty good the whole race,” Lex said. “It was not a race effort. It was a controlled effort. We went out there knowing we needed to control the race from the gun.”

Young, Ventura sophomore Sadie Engelhardt and Oaks Christian junior Payton Godsey won individual championships and the Newbury Park boys and girls won team titles again as local runners thrived on the switchbacks and climbs of Mt. San Antonio College’s famously strenuous course.

“You have to push the hills and relax on the downhills,” Lex Young said.

One year after historically sweeping the meet with a perfect 15, Newbury Park boys finished with 25 points. It is the fourth straight section title for the Panthers, equaling the county boys streak set by Oak Park from 2000 to 2003.

“We went out there to win,” said Newbury Park coach Tanya Brosnan. “Lex and Leo just worked together. … Nobody was trying to break any records or do anything crazy. We just wanted to do what we could to secure the win and move onto states. We didn’t want to beat ourselves up on the course today.”

Ventura juniors Anthony Fasthorse and Micah Grossman finished fourth (14:57.3) and fifth (14:58.6) and Westlake senior KC Barber was seventh (15:05.4) to break up the Panthers' quintet. Senior Brayden Seymour was sixth (15:00.6) and junior Dev Doshi was 13th (15:24.5) for Newbury Park.

“That wasn’t like the plan,” Ventura coach Tyree Cruz said. “It was ‘go race and see what happens.’ ”

Young, Young, Sahlman, Fasthorse, Grossman and Seymour gave Ventura County six of the top 10 boys times across all divisions.

Nick DeGeorge was 10th (15:15.6), Hollis Costa was 25th (15:44.8) and Henry Hammel was 49th (16:17.2) as Ventura finished second to Newbury Park with 90 points.

Sophomore Tiffany Sax was fifth (17:55.4) and senior Ailish Hawkins was sixth (17:55.5) as the Newbury Park girls won their third straight section title by topping second-place Ventura, 75-120, in Division 2.

“No one was chasing Sadie Engelhardt,” Brosnan said. “We needed to make sure we were first place as a team.”

Freshman Sophia Grant was 14th (18:36.2), junior Giselle Gonzalez was 25th (19:10.0) and junior Maya Natarajan was 29th (19:13.8) for the Panthers.

"It took a little bit more effort than the boys,” Brosnan said. “They were pretty good at the top. We need to work on our four and five. They need to close that gap.”

Engelhardt delivered Ventura’s first individual section championship, shrugging off a cold to win Division 2 by more than 12 seconds in 17:12.8.

“She’s still fighting illness,” Cruz said. “She’s looking to gain some fitness and get back to racing-type shape. She wanted to take it out a little harder.”

Ventura freshman Aelo Curtis learned from last week’s experience in prelims to finish third in 17:40.4.

“At prelims, I went out way too hard,” Curtis said. “The course is pretty deceiving. It’s doesn’t look that hilly (at the start). But when we did start doing those hills last week, it got a lot harder.”

This week, Curtis took a measured start before attacking the course on the switchbacks.

“She was incredible,” Cruz said. “She went out with Sadie last week. It was pretty tough. Once she got to the hills, she was in a lot of hurt. We talked about how to segment the course for her.”

Freshman Melanie True was 33rd (19:21.6), freshman Sophia Hernandez was 46th (19:43.0) and sophomore Bailey Burman was 59th (19:58.9) for the young Cougars.

As usual, Godsey had no issues with the course. She repeated as the Division 4 champion in 16:54.2, the only runner in the meet to break 17 minutes.

“I took the lead from the beginning of the race,” Godsey said. “I felt pretty good, so I decided to keep pushing. I ended up running away with it a little bit.”

Godsey’s time was the best of the day from any division and the fourth best by an area runner in course history. Simi Valley’s Sarah Baxter owns the course record in 16:00.

“I think it’s pretty exciting,” Godsey said. “The field has so much depth and there’s a lot of very talented girls in the race and teamwise, as well. It’s pretty cool to run as hard as I could and end up winning.”

Sarah Colebrooke was ninth (18:05.3) and Grace Geyer was 21st (18:49.6) as Oaks Christian finished second to JSerra in the team competition.

“We’re just still starting to see what we believe we’re capable of,” Oaks Christian coach Wes Smith said. “We’re not there yet.

“I’m proud of Sarah’s progression. We have a couple girls who are just recovering from being sick, so maybe we’re not as sharp as we could be next week.”

Moorpark and Oaks Christian joined Newbury Park and Ventura as local schools to qualify both its boys and girls teams for this week’s CIF State championships at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Tyler Smith was 10th (15;49.3), Thomas White was 13th (15:52.5), Hunter Lee was 14th (15:54.7), David Raigoza was 41st (16:28.9) and Christian Brady-Breton was 58th (16:49.4) as the Moorpark boys finished second in Division 3.

Samantha Maggiora was 28th (19:33.3), Kristen Gibbel was 29th (19:33.8), Leah Lopp was 39th (19:49.1), Jane Layton was 43rd (19:54.1) and Olivia De La Cruz was 50th (20:23.4) as the Moorpark girls finished third in Division 3.

Liam Papavasiliou was 18th (16:02), Baptiste Garderes was 22nd (16:10.5), Cooper Bumbarger was 25th (16:15.4), Ryan Morreale was 42nd (16:29.5) and Oliver Clippinger-Zimmerman was 48th (16:34.9) as the Thousand Oaks boys finished fourth in Division 3 to qualify for state.

Jonah Billings was third (15:09.2), Braedon Elliott was 15th (15:45.0), Chance Leandro was 21st (16:02.2), Baker Carlisle was 50th (16:38.8) and Kai Bensen was 62nd (16:54.4) as the Foothill Tech boys were fourth in Division 4 to qualify.

The Oaks Christian boys overcame the loss of top runner Christopher Pellettiere to injury to qualify.

“They had to toe the line without the No. 1 runner,” Wes Smith said. “They rallied to the occasion.”

Ethan Smith was sixth (15:14.7), Cooper McNee was 25th (16:08.7), Christian Yoder was 34th (16:18.4), Joshua Mitchell was 55th (16:44.6) and Vin Krueger was 74th (17:14.5) as the Lions finished sixth.

Krueger, a freshman alternate who had already left for soccer season, rejoined the team and scored.

The Lions were paced by Tyler Smith. After walking away from the sport for two years due to frustrations with injuries, the coach’s son returned as a senior and broke the school record by 0.3 seconds.

“Both as a coach and a father I have to be proud,” said Wes Smith. “He has begun to find his form. … We’re just seeing what he’s capable of.”

Girls results

Rae Rae Castagna was 36th (19:25.9), Kali Traversa was 44th (19:38.3), Laura Castagna was 45th (19:41.8), Bella Crovetti was 55th (19:54.5), and Alexa Pinon was 73rd (20:19.9) as Westlake finished ninth in Division 2.

Thousand Oaks finished 11th in Division 3 as Cassidy Kajita was 27th (19:32.2), Madeline Cooper was 33rd (19:40.1), Katie Yoshihara was 70th (20:56.2), Maggie De La Rionda was 72nd (20:59.5), and Genevieve Fournier was 80th (21:13.3).

Jenna Johnson was 21st (19:19.2), Reese Tamburo was 23rd (19:27.7), Paloma Padilla-Kastenberg was 85th (21:21.8), Fatima Merchant was 87th (21:27.8), and Roxana Niazi was 108th (22:34.5) as Agoura placed 14th in Division 3.

Oak Park finished 15th in Division 3 as Katarina Modrzejewski was 17th (19:04.2), Michelle Vu was 58th (20:34.4), Allyson Youde was 75th (21:01.9), Kavya Sreeraj was 77th (21:07.2), and Sydney Youde was 99th (22:10.1).

Niza Laureano was 48th (19:41.6), Nataly Vigil was 58th (20:08.4), Andrea Laureano was 81st (21:00.6), Leah Barragan was 88th (21:21.5), and Diana Santa Rose was 96th (21:51.7) as Fillmore finished 13th in Division 4.

La Reina finished 13th in Division 5 as Morgan Conway was 32nd (20:51.9), Ruth Tackett was 48th (21:47.3), Sophia Vaughan was 78th (23:22.2), Charlotte Bailey was 92nd (25:13.3), and Alessia Lavorato was 97th (26:07.8).

Boys results

Diego Montag was 54th (16:07.4), Eyouel Abate was 63rd (16:18.6), Michael Lennox was 70th (16:25.6), Jared Stimpson was 72nd (16:27.8), and James Rieckewald-Schmidt was 85th (16:48.5) as Camarillo finished 15th in Division 1.

Rio Mesa senior Nicholas Weinerth finished 21st (15:32.3) in Division 1.

Westlake was 11th in Division 2 as Luke Morgan (50th, 16:17.9), Andrew Neville (65th, 16:35.4), Mason Forrest (69th, 16:39.4), and Carter Cox (77th, 16:47.7) followed Barber.

Noah de la Rionda was 18th (15:32.6), Asher Lee was 41st (16:04.5), Samuel Bado was 47th (16:13.5), Ryan Moder, was 85th (16;58.2), and Ryan Dalell was 110th (18:28.2) as Royal finished 12th in Division 2.

The Highlanders were without top runner Jonah Bazerkanian, who came down with the flu before the race and struggled to stay hydrated.

“It wasn’t safe to race anymore,” Bazerkanian said.

The Cal Poly commit hopes to compete in the Champs Sports West Regional on Dec. 3 at Mt. SAC.

Agoura finished ninth in Division 3 as Darrick Jacob placed 32nd (16:23.1), Luciano Siracusano was 35th (16:24.2), Dan Barreto was 43rd (16:30.0), Devin Bening was 55th (16:48.4), and Sidney Martel was 57th (16:48.9).

Luc Lepin was 45th (16:31.6), Grant Jones was 70th (17:13.6), Jack Singley was 77th (17:21.0), Cooper Schiefstein 82nd (17:26.1), and Shreyam Bhattacharya was 88th (17:36.0) as Oak Park finished 16th in Division 3.

Santa Paula junior Diego Rodriguez finished 24th (16:12.4) in Division 3.

Thacher finished eighth in Division 5 as Diego Escalante was 14th (16:34.1), Nico Dilullo was 42nd (17:26.9), Mateo Escalante was 49th (17:32.4), Jeremy Bywater was 61st (17:52.4), and Todd Rosenbaum was 78th (18:18.2).

Joe Curley is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. Follow @vcspreps on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for more coverage.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Newbury Park cross country teams add to CIF-SS title haul