On the heels of sweeping all six Sonoma County League dual meets, the young Sonoma Valley High School cross-country girls dominated the SCL championships Saturday at the 3.01-mile Spring Lake Course in Santa Rosa, running to their second straight title after almost 30 years with no crowns.
The two-time SCL champion Lady Dragons claimed the crown with a score of 44 and was followed in the final league standings by Petaluma’s 56, Piner’s 63, Analy’s 87, Healdsburg’s 104; El Molino and Elsie Allen were incomplete.
“It was another stellar SCL season by the girls, who showed a depth unmatched in the league, despite being a group of just 11 total on the team,” said Sonoma head coach John Litzenberg, who’s assisted by Julie Niehaus. “We are, of course, focused now on the North Coast Section meet, with the top four teams moving on to the state meet.”
The NCS championship meet is Saturday, Nov. 21, at Hayward High School.
Leading the Sonoma girls was sophomore standout Amy Stanfield’s impressive third-place finish with a time of 18 minutes, 47 seconds.
“Individually, Amy’s time of 18:47 puts her second all-time for Sonoma girls to Sara Jakel’s time of 18:23 in 1993, they are the only girls to run sub 19 minutes on the course,” Litzenberg said. “Also, Sara was a senior when she ran that time, and Amy is a sophomore running her first season of cross-country – pretty incredible.”
The title-winning Lady Dragon runners were also led by senior Maddy Libbey’s eighth place in 19:32; sophomore Quinn Jensen’s 10th in 20:19; freshman Malia Cashel’s 11th in 20:23; junior Maddie Cashel’s 12th in 20:25; sophomore Eliza Neeley’s 14th in 21:06; and sophomore Trinity McGuinness 21st in 21:43.
Rounding out the Sonoma girls roster are juniors Jasmin Aguilar, Grace Cutting and Erika Reyes; and sophomore Helena Goodman.
In the SCL boys championship meet the Dragons finished in fourth place with a score of 140, as Piner won the title scoring after tallying a 30, followed by Petaluma’s 50 and Healdsburg’s 75, with Analy ending up in fifth place, and El Molino and Elie Allen were incomplete.
Pacing the Dragon boy runners was senior Travis Claeys’ sparkling second-place finish in 15:48.
“Travis (Claeys) is now second all-time for Sonoma boys on the current Spring Lake course, which has been the same since 1988,” said Litzenberg. “He’s also the only Sonoma boy to be sub-16:00 on the course other then Alex Conner’s 15:15 in 2011; this year’s winner Brian Schulz of El Molino is the only boy that beat Travis in any of the league meets.”
The Dragons were also paced by frosh Justin Cox’s 12th in 16:33 – putting him eighth all-time for the Sonoma boys in the event considered one of the top freshman boy runners in the league – junior Leonardo Macedonio’s 21st in 17:31; junior Brandon Barmore’s 26th in 18:18; junior Campbell Martin’s 29th in 18:55; and sophomore Cian Martin’s 35th in 20:18.
Rounding out the Sonoma boys’ squad are seniors Edwin Reyes and Pablo Vasquez-Cruz; and juniors Angel Barcenas and Nicol Fajardo.
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