Rocio Pacheco and Kaitlyn Kuehn finished sixth and seventh, respectively, to lead the San Marcos girls cross country team to the Division 2 team title at the Central Park Invitational in Huntington Beach
The Royals scored 76 points to edge out El Dorado by two points.
San Marcos boys finished third in the Division 2 boys race. Godinez won the team title with 44 points followed by Buena Park (99) and San Marcos (111).
Eric Salas was the Royals’ top finisher in 18th place.
Pacheco ran 19:04 on the 3-mile course that included hills, sand, grass and paved pathway. Kuehn clocked 19:10. They were followed by Annie Thwing (19:56), Iulia Roman (20:17), Krista Bowdle (20:25), McKenzie Funk (21:21) and Rachel Fay (21:32).
“All the girls ran a great race and worked so well together,” San Marcos coach Lawrence Stehmeier said. “We are real excited for this week’s second league meet at Arroyo Verde.”
On the boys race, Stehmeier said, “We had a very tight pack that finished within 25 seconds of the first six runners.”
Salas finished in 16:46 and Isaac Wright was seven seconds back in 16:53; Ryan Sorenson (16:55), Joe Logan (16:56), Nick Swider (17:11) and Grant Bradford (17:11) followed.
“It was a great day and all the coaches were so proud of all of them,” said Stehmeier.
