Merin Arft (L) and Megan Renken - Sierra League Champs
The Sierra League has long been one of the strongest cross country leagues in the area, and this year was no exception. Three teams came into the meet having achieved at-large CIF qualification based on their CIF rankings, and the two best girls teams – Claremont and Ayala would be ranked in any year but this one. The races Tuesday at Mt.SAC proved worthy of the buildup, as 7 boys went under 16:00 and 9 girls were sub-19:30 on this classic SoCal XC course.
The girls race was a battle between Claremont‘s front running strength and Ayala‘s solid 1-7 lineup. The Wolfpack certainly brought the quality up front, with sophs Megan Renkin and Merin Arft finishing a dominant 1-2, both timed in 18:23. They were just off the lead at the Crossover and then pulled away in the last half of the course, running side by side to win by 27 seconds. CHS received big contributions from their next three, most notably junior Bailey Sanin, returning from illness to finish 9th/19:24. But it just wasn’t enough as Ayala put all five scorers in the first ten to edge Claremont 32-40, with Claremont’s team time of 95:58 actually superior to Ayala’s.
South Hills already had an at-large bid to CIF, but they didn’t need it, finishing third on 77 points behind a strong 5-6 finish from frosh Danielle Murrietta (19:14) and senior Alex Borunda (19:17). Fifth placed St. Lucy’s was paced by a nice 12th/19:50 performance from frosh Katelyn Breitschwerdt, and Julia Galvez 25th/21:07 was best for Charter Oak.
 Tom Ebiner - Sierra League Champion
The boys race was a show down between Div. III #7 Damien and Div. II #7 Ayala. The Spartans won the first cluster, Ayala the second, and DHS had the better day at the Mt.SAC Invite. And if cross country were scored on the first three runners, Damien had the best day today. Their lead trio of Tom Ebiner (15:28), Douglas Negrete (15:31) and Connor Brandt (15:48) went 1-2-4. But we count to five, and Ayala put 4 in the top 10, and six below the Spartans #4, who finished 17th and their #5 was 23rd, giving Ayala a 36-47 win.
In ’10, Claremont overcame illness from the previous year to podium at CIF and State, but they couldn’t overcome graduation. Their young team, with only one senior and two frosh in the first five, fell just short of 3rd place Chino Hills. Junior Jimmy Baeskins was one spot from advancing individually with a 7th/16:00 finish. South Hills had been third in both cluster meets but had a rough day here and fell to fifth. Jason Diaz – 18th/16:30 – was best for the Huskies.
Full results are here. Dyestat coverage is here.
Video coverage from Tom Kiss of the SGVTrib group
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