Westlake, Fillmore win boys state cross country titles; Baxter wins third straight

Westlake, Fillmore win state titles; Baxter earns 3rd straight

• By Jim Carlisle, Derry Eads
• Posted November 24, 2012 at 4:38 p.m., updated November 24, 2012 at 5:22 p.m.

FRESNO — For Simi Valley High's Sarah Baxter, winning the CIF State Cross Country Championships was nothingnew. For the Westlake and Fillmore boys teams, it was much more unusual.

Baxter won her third straightindividual title and set the Woodward Park course record Saturday, leading Simi Valley to a third-place Division 1 finish. Westlake's boys won their first team championship in Division 2 and Fillmore's boys captured their first Division 4 crown since 1990.

Baxter's time of 16 minutes, 40 seconds broke the course record at the venerable Fresno course by three seconds. She now has three of the top 12 times in course history. Baxter said afterward she had set out to better her state meet time and had had no ideawhat the course record even was.

"I just wanted to P.R.," said the junior who last month set the fastest time ever recorded by a girl in a cross country meet, 16:00 at the Mount SAC Invitational. "… It's really special. The past two years it's felt awesome and it just feels that way every single time."

Baxter's teammates had to be consoled by their star. They had felt bad about their third-place finish until Baxter joined them after interviews, learned their placing, jumped up and yelled, "Yay! Podium finish!"

It was Simi Valley's best finish at the state meet.

"I feel they did awesome," Baxter said. "I feel they did really good."

Asked about her team's best quality, Baxter said, "The way we work together and pack it up and the way we encourage each other to work harder. We've been really a close team this year."

Coach Roger Evans said Baxter's attitude is never just about herself.

"The thing about her is she's not only very, very humble," Evans said, "but it's all about the team."

Simi Valley's 91:56 team time was the 17th fastest in course history. Charlotte Utash (16th, 18:23), CourtneyKorven (40th, 18:52), Desirae Jones (45th, 18:56) and Samantha Tetef (51st,19:05) were the other scorers for Simi.

Evans said Baxter — and perhaps the entire Pioneers team — might be invited to the Nike Cross Nationals next week in Portland, Ore.

Westlake's championship caps a sensational month for the Warriors in which they won the Marmonte League championship, the CIF-Southern Section title and the state crown. Westlake won Saturday with 84 points, 13 ahead of Saugus.

Senior Rocky Peterson was Westlake's first finisher, ninth in 15:46; followed by Mikey Giguere, 11th in 15:47; Sean O'Bryan, 14th in 15:57; Chris Costa, 17th in 16:00; and Graham Rigby, 33rd in 16:15. Costa finished ahead of Saugus' No. 3 finisher to help provide the difference. Westlake had a 29-second gap among its scorers.

Westlake's previous best finish was sixth in 2008.

"It's a work in progress and we're still of pinching ourself," coach Joe Snyder said. "They (were) excited to be here, but at the same time they're here to compete."

Senior Hugo Valdovinos led the way to Fillmore's championship, taking ninth in 16:03. Anthony Rivas was 14th in 16:20, Alexander Frias was 17th in 16:25, Jose Almaguer was 40th in 16:49 and Adrian Mejia was 41st in 16:49. The Flashes scored 121 points to runner-up Irvine-Crean Lutheran's 136.

The key for Fillmore's victory was Mejia finishing 26 places ahead of Crean Lutheran's No. 5 scorer.

"They got out. They did really well," coach Kim Tafoya said. "They got out the way they were supposed to and they worked on heading off the opposing runners that we needed to work on."

La Reina took fourth in the Division 4 girls race with junior Alyssa Frank the first Regent to cross the line, taking eighth in 18:54. Ariana Brojkovich was 12th in 19:13.

"I expected it to start out a little bit faster, but when we got to the one-mile (mark), I had a good pace," Frank said. "When we started, it was a little bit boxed in, but you just had to make your way through it."

Oak Park was fourth in the Division 3 boys race with Sahm Bazargan taking fifth in 15:38. Patrick Thedinga placed 15th in 16:01. The Eagles girls team was 16th in Division 3 with BrittanyBlackwell their top finisher in 19:37.

In Division 5, Thacher's girls were second, 10 points behind San Francisco-University. Thacher had won the Division 5 CIF-SS title the week before. Senior Melanie Reimer was 14th in her finalcross country race at 19:38. The Thacher boys team was fifth in Division 5.Simon Novich took 17th in 16:29.

Running as qualified individuals, Hannah Kirkegaard of Ventura took 51st in the girls Division 1 race in 18:50 and Monika Gyalay of Moorpark placed 19th in girls Division 2 in 18:32.