DyeStat


The Internet Home of Track & Field





NXN Finals
12/6/08 - Portland Meadows, Portland OR

Girls Championship
California Preview

California all-timers Saugus, Dana Hills
hope to carry success one more week


By Mike Kennedy

Last year Santa Clarita XC (Saugus HS) burst on the national scene with a surprise second-place finish at the Nike Team Nationals. The Centurions, ranked No. 2 in the nation this year by The Harrier magazine, knew that dethroning defending champion and No. 1 ranked Manlius XC (Fayetteville-Manlius, NY) in the reconfigured Nike Cross Nationals Saturday at the Portland Meadows Raceway was going to be difficult, given the fact the Manlius returned its top seven, but a series of late season challenges has made the task even more daunting. .

“Going into the finals (California Southern Section finals), we were running very well,” said Coach Rene Paragas, “but then we began to face some difficulties. Sophomore Stephanie Bulder got sick and senior Anne Randall came down with bronchitis and was so dehydrated after the finals that she had to be taken to the hospital.” 

Sophomore Kaylin Mahoney (left, photo by Margaret Gallagher) won the race at Mt. San Antonio College in 17:01 for her best performance of the year, and the team just missed its own course record of 88:18 by two seconds, but then Mahoney came down with a case of shin splints the following  Monday just six days before the State meet. She won the State Division II championship in 17:37 and led Saugus to the team title as the Centurions set the all-time Woodward Park record of 90:06, breaking their own record of 90:49 set in 2007. Despite winning the race, Mahoney did not look nearly as good as she had the previous week, prevailing in just the last 800 meters.

“She (Mahoney) will just be on the bike this week and then we will see what happens Saturday,” said Paragas.

Randall, who had been the Centurions No. 2 runner earlier this year, was just sixth in the State meet. However, Saugus has shown great versatility this year, with five different runners finishing as high as second behind Mahoney. “We have four seniors (Brianna Jauregui, Anne Randall, Kari Molt and Courtney Wilson) that have been varsity runners for the last four years and they have provided great leadership,” Paragas said. Junior Amber Murikami and freshman Karis Frankian fill out the top eight for Saugus.

Fayetteville-Manlius has shown no signs of slowing down this season, with big wins at the Manhattan Invitational, the New York State AA championships and last week in winning the NXN New York Regional with 25 points and a gap of just 12 seconds. It should be noted that, in that race, despite how the results looked, the team did not start out to run as a group. Sophomore Courtney Chapman and two teammates ran with the race leaders early while their No. 4 and 5 runners started a bit slower and just closed in the latter stages of the race to create the 12 second gap. In the State AA meet their gap was 72 seconds and at Manhattan the gap was 45 seconds. Saugus’ gaps this season have been 43, 49 and 61 in major competition. In winning the New York Regional, which qualified four teams to NXN, Fayetteville-Manlius was two minutes, 27 seconds in front of the second place team.

Dana Point XC (Dana Hills HS) was fourth in the 2007 California State merge, but Coach Rex Hall felt that his Dolphins were not that far from second. “The death of Megan Meyers had a profound effect  on the team”, Hall said. “We were losing just one senior and after the season I asked the girls what their goals were for 2008. They said ‘winning the CIF (Southern Section) and State championships.’ I said OK, but that means the work load will increase.

“With the addition of  sophomore Kristin Parry from Fallbrook and the improvement of sophomore Laura Beresford, who could not make the Varsity in 2007, I knew we were better."  The Dolphins won the Southern Section and State Division I team titles. In the State meet their team time was just 1:10 behind Saugus as they became  the third fastest team of all-time at Woodward Park, behind Saugus’ 2007 and 2008 squads.

“I know we are ranked just 18th (by The Harrier magazine) but I think we are a little underrated,” Hall said. “I think we are a top 10 team.” The team has been very consistent with Alaina Alvarez, Heather Balbier, Parry, Beresford and Paxton Cota, the top five runners in that order in both the Southern Section and State meets. The team gapped 48-seconds in the Southern Section meet and just 30 seconds at State.

Individually, senior Hillary Hayes of Edison (Huntington Beach), ran 17:37 in the State meet at Woodward Park in finishing second in the Division II race. Last year she ran 4:53.50 for 1,600 and 10:45.04 for 3,200. Junior Melissa Skiba of Oak Park, suffered her first loss of the season in finishing second in the State Division III in 17:41. Last year she had a best of just 10:55.43 for 3,200. Christine (Teeny) Adams (right, photo by Mark Smith) of Esperanza (Anaheim) also ran 17:41 in finishing second in the State Division I race. Last year she ran 4:53.25 for 1,600. The fifth individual qualifier is sophomore Alli Billmeyer of Torrey Pines (San Diego), who was third in the State Division I race in 17:46. She ran 4:52.70 as a freshman in 2008. Billmeyer, Adams and Hayes, were 4th, 6th and 8th in the State 1,600.

Senior Madeline Morgan of Mountain Brook AL returns to defend her girls' individual title. Other top ten finishers from 2007 that are in the field include runner-up Katie Flood of Dowling Catholic (West Des Moines, Ia.), third placer Sam Roecker of Burnt Hills-Balston Lake (N.Y.), seventh placer Mahoney, eighth placer Chapman, ninth placer Hannah Luber of Fayetteville-Manlius (N.Y.) and tenth place finisher Heidi Caldwell of Hanover (N.H.). 
DyeStat