The Carpinteria High girls cross country squad captured first place in the Small Schools division and took third overall at the Ojai Invitational on Saturday at Lake Casitas.
The Warriors’ strong showing led the way for local schools, as Santa Barbara High, Dos Pueblos, San Marcos and Cate also competed in the meet.
Carpinteria High
Jaqueline Guadian and Mila Martins spearheaded the Carpinteria girls’ effort with a pair of top-10 finishes. Guadian came in fifth at 20:17, while Martins secured ninth place at 20:56.
The top duo was joined by teammates Belen MacMurray (26th, 22:00), Kenzi Gardner (52nd, 23:07), Penelope Rowe (53rd, 23:08), Victoria Martinez (23:14) and Stasie Miranda (77th, 24:28).
The Warrior boys, meanwhile, slotted into ninth place as a team thanks in large part to a ninth-place individual finish from Max Soto, who recorded a time of 16:51.
Soto’s strong performance was followed by Ronny Rosales-Bui (53rd, 18:33), Liam Killen (60th, 18:41), Jaiden Ambriz (78th, 18:57), Brody Pozzebon (88th, 19:06), Christian Dominguez (89th, 19:07) and Christian Hernandez-Ortiz (19L31).
“This was a good meet for us and it gives us good momentum going into our first Citrus Coast League cluster meet,” Carpinteria High head coach Angel Silva said.
The Warriors’ first league meet of the season will come on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at the Santa Paula Creek Sports Park.
Santa Barbara High
The Dons were led by a fifth-place finish from the boys, while the girls team ended the day in 13th place.
Kik Van Engelen was the top finisher for the SB boys, who came in fourth place overall and second in the junior boys level. Meanwhile, Sydney Burgoyne crossed the finish line sixth and won the junior girls division.
Ethan Walp added a 15th-place finish for the boys, while Lucca Lowry (45th), Noah Davis (57th) and Micah Fore (59th) finished the scoring.
On the girls side, Burgoyne was followed by Lena Schneider (60th), Julia Thomson (81st), Meg Covington (87th) and Ariadna Aguilera (105th).
“The team came in and attacked the course exactly how we asked them to,” Santa Barbara High head coach Olivia Perdices said. “We’re in a heavy training cycle and today was really about testing some things before we come back up here for a league meet in two weeks. Good work from the team with a lot to build on.”
The Dons head into the bye week before a Channel/Pacific View Association meet on Saturday, Oct. 3.
Dos Pueblos
The Charger girls team recorded a 10th place finish in Ojai, while the boys came in 13th out of 21 scoring teams.
Viola Penn was the first Dos Pueblos girl to cross the finish line, taking 21st with a time of 21:43. She was joined by Gianna Conant (22:37), Samara Goodlett (22:45), Fabiola Vega (24:32) and Bryn Mumm (24:35).
As for the boys, Russell Hughes and Erik Lisiecki finished back-to-back in 18:25 and 18:34, respectively. Alexander Tucker (18:54), Adam Costa (18:56) and Alden Bridges (19:14) rounded out the top five.
“With five of our freshmen accounted for in the top ten between the two races, Ojai offered an encouraging look at both where DPXC is now and the young group developing behind it,” Dos Pueblos head coach David Jackson said.
San Marcos
RJ Atterbury was the top Royals’ finisher with a time of 17:22, while the rest of the boys team featured Matteo Sturm, John Rupnow and Beck Pirrozzi.
“RJ is only a sophomore and has really stepped up his commitment to training throughout the summer and season,” San Marcos head coach Marilyn Hantgin said. “Ojai is a very tough race, with lots of hills to deal with. The boys really competed well today.”
Meanwhile, Maya D’Amour finished fourth place overall for the Royal girls with her time of 20:03.
“This was Maya’s first race of the year. She looked really strong throughout all three miles,” Hantgin said. “Her improvement from last year on this course was impressive. Maya is a true competitor. She doesn’t shy away from hard things.”
Fellow Royals Charli Wood and Teya Perkins followed D’Amour’s strong day.
“I think this race will give our girls a lot of confidence going into the next weeks of racing,” Hantgin said.
San Marcos will race in the Raider Invite in Oxnard on Thursday.
Cate
The Rams opened their season at the Ojai Invitational on Saturday at Lake Casitas.
Sophie Blank shined for Cate with a third-place finish overall, improving on her course-record time by 40 seconds.
The Rams’ girls team also got solid showings from Aggie McTigue, Michelle Wu, Harper Bishop, Lynn Kim and Hiver Von Johnston.
In the boys race, the Rams got a top-20 finish from Ati Zwieback, who was followed by Bruce Li, Jackson Steele, Ethan Qui, Miles Thompson, Liam Christiansen and Patrick Wycoff.
Daniel Wang, Jackson Kerr, Thomas Wycoff and Nonso Egbuonu also raced for Cate.
The Rams will be back in action at the Twilight Invitational on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
