Runners from the San Diego Section performed quite admirably at last weekend’s high school state cross-country championship meet in Fresno. Torrey Pines senior Tal Braude won the Division I boys individual title while Orange Glen senior Andrew Tellames placed second in the Division II boys race and La Jolla Country Day junior Natalia Laspada finished third in the Division V girls race.
Additionally, La Jolla Country Day placed third among Division V boys’ teams while
Runners from the San Diego Section performed quite admirably at last weekend’s high school state cross-country championship meet in Fresno. Torrey Pines senior Tal Braude won the Division I boys individual title while Orange Glen senior Andrew Tellames placed second in the Division II boys race and La Jolla Country Day junior Natalia Laspada finished third in the Division V girls race.
Additionally, La Jolla Country Day placed third among Division V boys’ teams while
La Costa Canyon placed fourth among Division II girls’ teams.
The meet took place Saturday, Nov. 30, in Fresno.
Braude won the 5K Division I title in 15:02 — one second ahead of Arcadia senior Estavan De La Rosa — to become the first section state champion since La Costa Canyon’s Darren Fahy in 2011.
Monte Vista, which qualified as a team entry, finished 19th among the 23 Division III girls squads. Top place-finishers for the Monarchs included seniors Celina Lepe (74th, 19:47) and Arlette Sanchez (102nd, 20:12). A total of 190 finishers competed in the 5K race.
As for the 14 individual qualifiers from East County schools:
In the 183-deep Division II girls race, Valhalla senior Kristin Semancsin was 38th in 18:43 while classmate Shea Ricketts was 67th in 19:07. Steele Canyon junior Sophia Alcaraz placed 58th (19:02) in the same race.
In the 184-deep Division II boys race, Steele Canyon junior Josh Paradise finished 65th in 16:16, followed by Valhalla junior Trent Rule (66th, 16:17).
El Capitan junior Kayden Carpenter finished 46th (19:16) in the Division III girls race to lead East County runners.
In the 196-deep Division III boys race, El Capitan seniors Reoh Darwell (16:30) and Jorge Gomez (16:59) finished 57th and 102nd, respectively, while Monte Vista sophomore Tyler Lopez (16:49) finished 84th.
In the 184-deep Division V girls’ race, Mountain Empire sophomores Makiah Salzano (20:16) and Kyley Inman (20:39) placed 37th and 52nd, respectively.
In the 198-deep Division V boys’ race, Christian junior William Kiel (17:03), Mountain Empire senior Mason Smith (17:07) placed 39th and 43rd, respectively, while Christian junior Spencer Crouder (18:28) was 130th.
The Foot Locker National Cross Country championship meet is scheduled Dec. 14 at San Diego’s Morley Field. The elite girls race starts at 9:15 a.m., followed by the elite boys race at 10 a.m.
The West regional qualifier is this Saturday, Dec. 7, in Walnut.
