The Santa Barbara High boys cross country team won its third consecutive title while the Dos Pueblos girls’ squad finished atop the standings in the Santa Barbara County Championships on Wednesday.
Individually, San Marcos’ Kiala Haas won the girls’ race with a time of 18:22, and Charger junior Eamon Gordon captured his second straight county championship after crossing the finish line in 15:02.
Dos Pueblos
Along with the Charger girls winning the championship race, the boys’ team finished in second place behind the Dons.
Dos Pueblos got a great performance from Vienza Machuca to propel the girls’ team to the title, finishing the race in 18:35 for a second-place finish. That time was almost three minutes better than her mark last season.
“This huge improvement over last year is a testament to the gradual and progressive training she’s undertaken since coming back from her track season injury,” Chargers coach David Jackson said.
Behind Machuca were Eloise Shea (19:01), Sophie Saleh (19:05), Cate Bishop, Maddy Myers (20:19), Torrey Beckstrand (20:53) and Selah Blackwell (20:55).
Gordon repeated as county champion for the Dos Pueblos boys team, pulling away after finishing the opening mile in 4:49.
After Gordon came Cullen Gully (15:36), Linus Martin (16:15), Will Matthews (16:15), Oliver Saleh (16:23), Andy Brennan (16:25) and Owen Abbott (16:41).
Santa Barbara High
En route to the county championship victory, the Dons had all five of their boys runners finish in the top eight with personal-best times.
Bode Andrulaitis led the way with a second-place finish in 15:28. Following Andrulaitis were Nico Tassos (5th, 15:37), Benjamin Diaz (6th, 15:44), Sasha Tanasychuk (7th, 15:47) and Matthias Everest (8th, 15:51).
“It was great to give some different guys a chance to race up front in a championship meet,” Santa Barbara coach Olivia Perdices said. “They took the challenge and did a great job racing for and keying off each other.”
On the girls’ side, the Dons finished in fourth place with 130 points, paced by Madeleine Van Bebber’s seventh-place time of 19:20.
Mackenna Show (29th, 21:05), Ailey Alexander (30th, 21:11), Sophia Guerrero (35th, 21:29) and Ridley DeSoto (38th, 21:34) wrapped up the scoring for the team.
“Maddy always shows up ready to compete and that’s a personal best for Sophia,” Perdices said. “It was a good meet for us leading into the Channel League Finals next week.”
San Marcos
Haas’ impressive victory spearheaded a great team performance for the San Marcos girls, who ended in second place as a team.
Finishing behind Haas for the Royals were Samara Shalhoub, Melina Vela, Colette Keller and Ellie Monson.
“We ran pretty relaxed today,” San Marcos coach Marilyn Hantgin said. “County Meet is always a great place for athletes to get personal bests, and today we did just that.”
Ben Callanan led the pack for the Royals in the boys’ race, finishing 10th overall. Meanwhile, Gage Minne and Ayden Welch recorded personal-best times. Capping off the scoring were Andrew Ribillio, Asher Holmes and Jared Simms.
“Our boys ran a great team race,” Hantgin said. “They worked together throughout the race. It was great to see them find success today.
“These boys have been working so hard all summer and fall. I am so happy for them.”
All three of these schools will compete in the Channel League Finals at College Park in Oxnard on Friday, Nov. 3.
