JSerra girls cross country wins third straight CIF-SS title – Orange County Register

WALNUT — Another CIF Southern Section Cross Country Finals.

Another first-place finish for the JSerra girls.

The Lions placed four runners among the top 10 finishers and six among the top 13, scoring 31 points to easily win the Division 4 championship on Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.

The Southern Section title is the third in a row for the Lions, who will now attempt to win their third consecutive state championship next Saturday, Nov. 25, at Woodward Park in Fresno.

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JSerra’s top finishers were Sophie Polay (third), Kaylah Tasser (fourth) Summer Wilson (fifth), Brynn Garcia (seventh), Sophie Ebiner (10th) and Chloe Elbaz (13th).

“I think it’s so surreal,” Garcia said. “I feel like it’s very unique to be a part of a team that’s so competitive and we train at such a high level. I think another unique thing is that we’re all very dedicated. We all have the shared goal of trying to go to state and even further to nationals. And I think that really shows in our workouts. We all work off of each other. We all push each other but at the same time, we’re very supportive.”

Orange County athletes and teams turned in the best overall showing in the Division 3 race where Dana Hills, Santa Margarita and Yorba Linda finished first, second and fourth, respectively, and all qualifed for the state meet.

Corona del Mar’s Melisse Djomby Enyawa won the race and the Dolphins’ Annie Ivarsson took second.

Enyawa, who recently committed to Cal Poly Pomona, set a goal of topping her second-place finish from the 2022 Southern Sections finals.

The senior also hopes to improve on last season’s fifth-place finish at the state finals.

“I really want to push it,” Enyawa said. “I know I can do it. so it’s just a matter of mentally pushing myself again. Because I’ve done all the training, I know where I should be so now it’s just executing it.”

St. Margaret’s is headed to the state championships for the seventh year in a row after finishing first as a team in the Division 5 race.

Joyce Li led the Tartans with a second-place finish and teammates Sarah Bendzick and Coco Johnson ran sixth and 14th, respectively.

“Just a fearless race by a sophomore,” St. Margaret’s coach Pat Bendzick said of Li’s effort. “She goes out there, she sets a tempo for everybody and she gets everybody into position. And you have to credit a lot of what happened behind her to just that fearless start from her.”

Li had the lead for most of the race before being passed in the final mile by Pacifica Christian’s Ella Murray, the winner of the race.

Murray’s victory helped the Tritons finish seventh, just above the cutoff to qualify for the state championships.

“As a team going into the race, we knew it was going to be such a battle for that seventh place,” said Murray, who transferred to Pacifica Christian from Marina this season. “We knew we were going to be teetering with a few other teams for that seventh spot, and so we came in with the mentality of that this could be our last race. We just have to give it our all and that really had worked out for us.”

Holly Barker of Trabuco Hills finished second in the Division 1 race behind Rylee Blade of Santiago of Corona, one of the state’s top runners.

Barker won the sweepstakes race at the Orange County Championships this season for the third year in a row.

Due to the possibility of rain, the decision was made Friday evening to change the course from the normally used hilly, dirt course to a flatter, safer “rain” course.