Ventura High has always been dominant in cross country, but when it comes to second place in Channel League meets, there is some considerable parity nowadays.
Host Dos Pueblos beat San Marcos by one point in the girls race and edged Buena by two in the boys race to pick up a pair of pleasant surprises for coach Leslie Wiggins-Roth on Wednesday, finishing second in both contests.
San Marcos had the top individual performances of the three city schools, as Danielle Gemberling took second with a time of 19 minutes, 21 seconds in the girls heat. Evan Bradford took third in the boys race, clocking in at 16:20.00.
“It was a hard course. It was up and down and it was rough,” said Gemberling.
Geena Boscacci, Santa Barbara High’s top girls finisher in 21st place (21:12), echoed Gemberling’s thoughts saying “I had to look down for gopher holes the whole time.”
But, on their home course, the Chargers seemed to glide right above those holes.
“It’s so exciting. I couldn’t have asked for much more!” exclaimed Wiggins-Roth. “It just really was a team effort.”
Kelly Kosmo (19:35) took fourth and was the leading DP girls finisher, and teammate Erin Campbell was two seconds behind in fifth place. Sophie Pollack was eighth, freshman Sarah “Secret Weapon” Eggers-Jamison was 14th and Caylee Daiel was 16th.
Bradford was three seconds off of his personal-best time for San Marcos.
“My plan was kind of just to go out fast and see if I could hang with everybody,” he said in between gasps at the finish line. “That Ventura kid was pretty fast.”
That Ventura kid was Easton Tackett, who ran a 16:09 for second while Chris Frias of Buena blazed a path to the win at 15:59.
“Evan ran a great race, a smart race. I told the guys that the place was more important than the time,” said San Marcos coach Lawrence Stehmeier. “This is a big meet, so the time was just a bonus.”
Gemberling is new to cross-country, having been a sprinter and jumper for the track team in previous years.
“It’s a pleasure to watch her run. She just floats across the ground,” said Stehmeier.
The Royals coach said that he wasn’t surprised about DP nabbing second, saying “We knew they’d be good this year, and those girls just keep progressing.”
Stehmeier saw that his team was behind by two points and tried to get his girls to move up, which they did, but the Chargers charged as well.
DP’s edge in the boys race came through top finishes in fourth and fifth place, just as in the girls competition.
Christopher Braden steamed to the finish line in 16:32, and Sergei Sushchikh was close behind in 16:37. Matt Bailey finished 10th, Raymond Trujillo was 16th and Sam Sarmiento took 20th.
Santa Barbara took fourth in the boys race and fifth in the girls competition. Kevin Kirchoff’s time of 17:46 led the Dons’ boys, while Boscacci’s 21st-place time of 21:12 led the girls.
“I thought my teams competed well. This group’s going to just keep getting better because they’re packed so close and they keep pushing each other. It’s a young group, and they’ll keep getting better… This race comes up pretty quick,” said Dons coach Olivia Perdices, who also highlighted sophomore Nathaniel Taylor’s 28th-place finish.
The next league meet is scheduled for October 16th in Ventura.
TEAM SCORES
Girls: Ventura 31, Dos Pueblos 47, San Marcos 48, Santa Barbara 118, Buena 122.
