Adilene Aldapa and Jewel Fisher placed in the top 10, leading the San Marcos girls cross country team to a second-place finish in its Division 3 race at the Mt. SAC Invitational.
The Royals boys team turned in a strong performance, placing fifth in the Division 3 Sweepstakes Race.
Aldapa came in third place, running the hilly Mt. SAC course in 19:01. Fisher placed ninth in 19:40 and Julianna Logan crossed the finish line in 14th in 20:10. Rounding out the San Marcos finishers were Krista Bowdle (24th, 20:41), Emily Pearlman (48th, 21:40) and McKenzie Funk (56th, 21:52).
San Marcos finished behind Tamalpais of Mill Valley.
Eric Salas was the top finisher for the San Marcos boys, taking 18th place in 15:38. He was followed by Ryan Sorensen (28th, 15:47), Nicholas Swider (41st, 16:02), Walker Odell (Walker Odell (66th, 16:21), Joe Logan (69th, 16:26), Ben Gitterman (126th, 17:25) and David Peterson (133rd, 17:48).
The Dos Pueblos boys finished in seventh place, edged out of sixth by Great Oak in the Division 1-2 Team Sweepstakes Race.
“This is pretty awesome, when you consider that last season we had Bryan Fernandez in 1st and only earning one point,” said DP coach Leslie Wiggins Roth. “This year’s boys team has a lot of depth and is really starting to run to their potential.”
The five Charger runners finished in the top 100, led by Cole Smith in 14th with a time of 15:25. He ran 16:20 last year and was 97th. Andrew McGuan came in 38th in 15:51 and Ian Wasjutin was 49th in 16:06. Rounding DP’s finishers were John Greening (52, 16:10), Christian Wasjutin (53, 16:16), Tyler Bradford (86, 16:57).
Addi Zerrenner ran 17:45 and finished sixth, and the DP girls placed 15th in Division 1-2 Team Sweepstakes Race. The other finishers for the Chargers were Elaine McClure (64, 19:13), Christina Rice, (71, 19:22) Natalie McClure, (93, 19:45), Tatianna Schluep, (101, 19:59); Racquel Fygenson (122, 20:35), Tabbie Magner, (135, 22:45).
“Last year, the girls were placed in the ‘individual’ sweepstakes race, meaning we had 1 or 2 good runners, but not necessarily a full team to be competitive with the other top teams in D1 and 2,” Roth said. “To be in the team sweeps this season was truly an honor, and the girls did pretty well considering the training load this week, the hot weather and the intense competition. We finished 15th overall, one minute faster as a team than last season, and with a faster team time than both 13th and 14th place.”
Santa Barbara High competed in the Division 2 races. Christiana Karam was the Dons top girls finisher, coming in 23rd in 20:48. Maia Ziaee was 62d in 23:02. The SBHS girls were 10th in the team standings.
Bradley Apodaca placed 17th in 17:03 to lead the SBHS boys to a 9th-place team finish. Tanner Munizich finished 37th in 17:29.
