Dos Pueblos Boys Cross Country wins CIF-SS D2 title; San Marcos girls qualify for state
Mike Klan
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT). – Dos Pueblos High School cross country is celebrating the boys CIF-Southern Section Division 2 championship with a four point win over Hart (84-88).
With a school record 3 mile total combined time of 1:13:30 for 5 runners (Avg Time of 14:42 per man) and a spread of 27 seconds from first to fifth runner, Dos Pueblos came out on top of the podium at Mt. San Antonio College.
From head coach David Jackson:
“With cool temps in the low 50s, the Chargers took Race #1 with determination. Lead by a 1-2 punch from Owen Abbot and Phil Contakes we put ourselves in contention. We were positioned in 4th, 40 points behind Hart of Santa Clarita. With Linus Martin, Ashton Smedley, Oliver Saleh and Cullen Gully in a pack of their own, pushing the chase pack, our race for gold was on. We came through the two mile mark just 1 point behind. And in a final push for the Championship, we were 4 points ahead. With such a close margin of victory, we were feeling vindicated for all the hard work at he edge of the continent, up here at the top of the Southern Section. And, then we saw the merged results. We came out on top of the whole section. Such an accomplishment is exciting, and we still have the State Championship to go. So, we’ll savor the moment.”
The DP girls did not advance to the State final after finishing in 9th place out of 16 teams. The Chargers were led by Cate Bishop who helped DP finish three places higher than last year. She came in 24th overall individually with a time of 17:38.
The San Marcos girls cross country team qualified for next weekend’s CIF State Meet with a sixth place finish overall. Sofi Hernandez had a personal-best time of 17:46. Elsie Tuttle was close behind at 17:49 followed by Samara Shalhoub (18:12), Layla Llewellyn (18:17) and Autumn Richardson (18:25).