IRVINE — Even with a team loaded with underclassmen, El Toro girls cross country coach Ken Chai liked the Chargers’ chances to place high and perhaps even win the team title in the girls rated varsity race at the Woodbridge Classic on Saturday at the Great Park.
So, Chai was beyond thrilled to see the Chargers, led by Gwenith Williams’ second-place finish, capture the team title in the race, one of the premier events of the meet.
El Toro placed five runners among the Top 25 placers and scored 90 points, 19 points ahead of the second-place team, Crater of Oregon
Also contributing to the victory were senior Lucy Varela (21st place), sophomore Samantha Danaher (24th) and Lily Schroeder and Ava Crocker, both freshmen, who finished tied for 25th.
Chai said Crocker and Schroeder were running in their first 3-mile race.
“We knew we had something special,” Chai said. “I mean, they absolutely performed. … We knew we had a good chance but they have to perform.”
Yorba Linda finished fifth, thanks to Isabella Wroblewski and Olivia Reed, who were 10th and 11th, respectively.
Williams, who finished third as a freshman in the CIF-SS Division 2 finals and fifth in Division II at the CIF State Championships, crossed the line at Woodbridge in a personal-best time of 16 minutes, 35.1 seconds. That was 2.1 seconds behind Vista Murrieta senior Erika Kirk, the winner of the race.
“I really wasn’t expecting her to be with me for the entire time,” Williams said of Kirk. “But I was really glad that she was because it helped push me a little bit more. I set it up good for the first mile, but the second mile was a little slow for me, which was a little disappointing but it was still a really good race.”
Some of the storylines out of Woodbridge were more about missed expectations.
Dana Hills senior Evan Noonan, the Gatorade state boys cross country runner of the year as a junior last season, finished 18th in the boys sweepstakes race, the premier event of the meet.
In a race that included some of the top runners in the nation, Noonan was among the top five and within about a second of the leader for most of the race.
But he faltered in the final quarter mile and finished 18th in 14:04.
Noonan, the defending CIF Division III state champion, won the sweepstakes race last season in 13:41.3.
“We prepared well,” Dana Hills assistant coach Gianni Viola said. “He knows how to prepare himself both physically and mentally. I think here he was doing great. I saw him. He was in third and he was kind of moving up. That’s exactly what we wanted him to be. I didn’t get a good look at it, but something happened in that last 400. I think he just overworked himself a little.”
The JSerra girls team, a perineal powerhouse, finished fifth as a team in the girls sweepstakes race after winning the race last year.
The Lions captured their third consecutive CIF Division IV state championship last season.
Originally Published:
