Locals chase down titles at CIF State Championships Saturday

Posted: Nov 23, 2012 5:10 PM by Andrew Masuda

Three Central Coast cross country teams and three individual runners will chase after CIF State titles on Saturday. For the 25th-straight year, the CIF State Cross Country Championships will take place at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Races start from 8:30am to 1:20 pm.

The St. Joseph girls run the 5,000 meter course first. The Knights, who finished sixth in the CIF-Southern Section final, are slated to go at 9:30am. Junior Beth Rigali led the Knights last week with a ninth place finish.

The Pac 7 League champion Arroyo Grande High boys run in the Division II race at 10:40am. The Eagles finished sixth at the Southern Section final. Trevor Cowan led the Eagles in that race with a 23rd place finish, while Jonathan Corley finished 36th. It marks the second time the program is sending a team to the state meet.

The Paso Robles boys will run at 12:50pm in the Division III race. The Bearcats finished fifth last week to qualify for state. Aidan Farrell, a senior, led the Bearcats with a time of 14:50, which was good for 25th place out of 119 runners.

San Luis Obispo High senior Micayla Rennick will represent the Tigers in the Division III race as an individual runner at 11:10 am. Rennick finished 9th at the Southern Section final to qualify.

Santa Ynez High's Jacob Carey and Morro Bay's Austin Lay will race at 11:45 am in the Division 4 boys race. Carey, the Los Padres League champion, came in sixth last week at the CIF-SS final, while Lay finished 15th to advance.

The last Central Coast male athlete to win a CIF State cross country title was Dan Nunno from San Luis Obispo High. He won a DIII title in 2003. Luis Quintana of Arroyo Grande High also won a D1 title in 1990.

Mission Prep's Jordan Hasay won four-straight CIF State titles from 2005-2008. The last female runner from the Central Coast other than Hasay to win a state crown was Jennifer Lacovara of Morro Bay High. She won a Division IV title in 1990.

The only local team to ever win a CIF State Team championship was the San Luis Obispo boys squad that won the Division III title in 2003.