Ever since Liberty Charter High School relocated to Alpine, the school’s cross-country team has made headlines, and it continues to do so.
The Lions won their division at the 2022 San Diego Section championship meet en route to a seventh-place finish at the state championship meet. Last year, Liberty Charter finished third in the section finals en route to a sixth-place finish at the state meet.
The Lions climbed the hill once again by winning the Division V boys team title Saturday at Balboa Park’s Morley Field. The next stop is a return trip to the state championship course at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 30.
That’s two division championships in three years and three consecutive trips to the state meet for those counting.
“We set out a plan to win CIF and to place top three in the California state meet this year,” Liberty Charter head coach Daniel Sanchez said. “We have qualified for the California state meet the last three years. We hope to place in the top three this year.”
The Lions scored a division low 67 points to top the field of 15 scoring teams. Francis Parker finished runner-up with 72 points, followed by Santa Fe Christian with 100 points. The top four teams in the division qualified for the upcoming state meet. Maranatha Christian was fourth with 114 points.
Among East County teams, Christian was 10th with 225 points while Mountain Empire was 15th with 458 points.
A team can enter seven runners, five of whom score based on their place-finishes in a race.
High Tech High North County senior Maxwell Gibbons finished on top of the 132-deep field with a winning time of 15:44.3 — five seconds ahead of runner-up finisher Kai Rottier, a junior from High Tech High Mesa.
Santa Fe Christian senior Evan Smith finished third in 16:03.9. The Lions made their presence felt shortly thereafter.
Liberty Charter senior Aiden Burr placed fourth in 16:16.0 as the team’s No. 1 scorer. Sophomore Sam Rohrer was ninth in 16:52.1, followed by senior Luke Mapes in 13th place in 17:01.4, junior Marcos Heers in 18th place in 17:13.0 and senior Noah Hogan in 32nd place in 18:07.4 as the team’s No. 5 scorer.
Sophomore Ethan Acosta finished 38th in 18:19.1 while junior Caleb Acosta was 39th in 18:20.6 to round out the Lions’ complement of seven runners on the 2.96-mile course.
“Our mindset coming into the meet was to run aggressively and not take anything for granted,” Sanchez said. “A championship is never given; it is always earned. We won a hard-fought race where every guy on the team mattered.”
The Lions have four returners from last year’s team and two returners from the first CIF championship team.
The top 20 place-finishers at the section finals receive medals while the top 10 finishers are honored as First Team All-CIF.
Burr and Rohrer earned All-CIF recognition while Mapes and Heers also received medals.
“Our school only has 380 students, and we train in the hilly environment of Alpine,” Sanchez noted. “Most importantly, all these boys are great young men of character. They are more than runners. They will be making a difference in the world as they get older because they are learning how to embrace the value of hard work and commitment. Cross country is a very difficult sport. My program aims to build young men and women of character. I’m very proud of this group.”
Liberty Charter’s girls team placed fourth in Division V. The top three teams qualified for the state meet.
“Our girls program missed state by three points and almost made history as well,” Sanchez said. “They were much improved from last year.”
The Lady Lions had three medalists: senior Cambira Sanchez (13th, 20:51.4), junior Cadelyn Belasco (14th, 20:54.4) and sophomore Cambrey Belasco (18th, 21:25.3).
First time is the sweetest
The Christian girls made history with their first division championship by out-pointing runner-up Francis Parker 71-92. Bishop’s finished third with 94 points.
“We have been runner up several times, but this is our first CIF title,” head coach Mike Kirwan said. “This year’s team is a special group of young ladies who are an absolute joy to coach and be around. They are the most encouraging, supportive of each other group that has come through in some time.
Kirwan said five seniors have provided a stable backbone for the team while sophomore standout Elliana Patterson keyed the team with a meteoric third-place finish at the division finals with a time of 18:45.
“Every single athlete, including the No. 6/No. 7 pushers, came through in the final two miles to move up from fourth to first with the top five placers picking up 29 places in the second mile alone,” Kirwan said.
Elliana Patterson finished arrears of race winner Ayanna Hickey, a junior from Bishop’s, who timed 17:26.2, and Parker junior Ari Lllorens (18:21.3).
The Lady Patriots’ other top scorers included senior Faith Patterson (15th, 21:00.7), sophomore Grace Peterson (16th, 21:04.8) and seniors Estella Kleiner (19th, 21:36.7) and Annaliese Pelletier (23rd, 22:07.9).
“Our three goals for this season in August were a league championship, a Mt. SAC top three showing and a trip to state,” Kirwan said.
“The group won league with an 8-0 record, won the Division V girls varsity race at Mt. SAC and as it got closer to CIF and their times started dropping, our focus changed from placing at CIF to winning it.
“It was absolutely incredible to watch it unfold and see their hours and years of hard work be validated like that. I simply could not be more proud of each and every one of them. We’re looking forward to an amazing trip to Fresno full of more memories and personal bests.”
Foothills Christian senior Ashlyn Purvis (20th, 21:47.7) also medaled in the 90-deep field.
Fleet feet
Santana’s Harper Diaz qualified for last year’s state meet as a freshman; she’s going back as a sophomore after winning the Division III girls individual title. The Lady Sultan standout timed 17:30.9 to place ahead of Sage Creek senior Gabriella Peters (17:36.4) and Cathedral Catholic senior Jocelyn Gibson (17:47.1) in the 88-deep field.
Diaz recorded a personal record time by one minute after placing fifth in 18:31.30 last year.
“It’s exciting to be going again — I’m happy seeing all my hard work pay off,” she said. “I knew (Peters) would be good competi¬tion. I faced her at Mt. SAC and she beat me. I realized with a half-mile to go that I might be able to beat her with a strong finish.”
El Capitan sophomore Cora Lottermoser (14th, 19:08.0) will join Diaz in Fresno as the final individual qualifier in the division.
“I didn’t have a great race at state last year, so I want to improve on that,” Diaz said.
El Capitan finished sixth while Santana finished eighth among Division III girls teams.
Steele Canyon will be sending four runners to this year’s state meet: senior Micah Senn (second, 15:49.6) and senior Miguel Casillas (fifth, 16:11.5) on the Division II boys side and senior Dania Lopez (seventh, 18:55.6) and junior Danica Ferrez (11th, 19:17.00 on the division’s girls side.
Vista senior Jarett Cruz struck gold with a first-place finish in 15:46.8 but Senn grabbed the silver medal. In fact, Senn and Casillas were among the top four front-runners through the first mile.
Grossmont junior Paul Benrud (seventh, 16:14.9) and Grossmont sophomore Luis Naranjo (10th, 16:20.5) made it four state quali¬fiers for East County in the Division II boys race.
Grossmont sophomore Jane Telliard (fifth, 18:55.0) qualified for state as an individual in the Division II girls race as East County netted seven state qualifiers in the two Division II gender fields.
The top three teams advanced to the state meet in both division gender races. Knocking on the door to the state meet were Steele Canyon (fourth, 94 points) and Grossmont (fifth, 97 points) in the boys field.
The Lady Cougars (92 points) were fourth in the girls field to just miss the state cut-off by four points. Grossmont placed seventh in the team standings.
Helix will be sending three individual qualifiers to the state meet: senior Joel Nickerson (10th, 16:05.7) and junior Tyus Joseph (12th, 16:12.4) from the Division I boys race and sophomore Kate Weaver (fifth, 15:56.9) from the Division I girls race,
Weaver is a returning state meet qualifier while both Nickerson and Joseph are first-time qualifiers.
Helix coach Babey Wagnew, a four-time state qualifier at his alma mater (third as a sophomore),” said it’s the first time in his coaching career (since 2015) that the Highlanders have sent that many to Fresno.
“It’s amazing to see this,” he said.
“I put in a bunch of hard work this season,” Nickerson said. “I had a lot of confidence to go out and execute. It was hard but I wanted it badly.”
East County scored two individual qualifiers in the Division III boys race: West Hills senior Daniel Vesetmean (fifth, 16:03.4) and sophomore teammate Ryan Revak (sixth, 16:12.4).
