Fernandez leads DP boys to victory, Zerrenner wins heat at CIF prelims

The Dos Pueblos boys ran to their No. 1 ranking and the Charger girls turned in a solid performance at the CIF-SS cross country prelims at Mt. San Antonio College on Saturday.

Bryan Fernandez cruised to victory and Max Davis placed ninth to lead the Charger boys to a first-place finish in Division 2 race. Fernandez, who hasn’t lost a race this season, ran the hilly three-mile course in 14:59 and Davis clocked 15:29. Andrew McGuan came in 13th (15:43), Cole Smith was 19th (15:53), Ben York finished 32nd (16:10), John Greening fought through illness to place 38th (16:29) and Tyler Bradford finished 40th (16:28).

Dos Pueblos finished 18 points over second-place Tesoro, 74-92.

The DP girls placed sixth in their Division 2 qualifying heat, one of their best finishes at the prelims, said coach Leslie Wiggins Roth.

Addi Zerrener came in first place in the hear in 17:39 to earn a spot in next weekend’s CIF finals. Elaine McClure improved seven places from last year’s prelims, taking 13th in 18:52. The other Charger finishers were Racquel Fygenson (20:22), Tatianna Schluep (20:52) ad Vijin Wang (21:12).

“This is a young team with a lot of promise, and since we aren’t losing any key varsity members it looks like we have a very bright future,” said Roth.

Santa Barbara High’s girls finished sixth in their heat in Division 3.