Competing in the Jeff Nelson Invitational this past weekend, the Saugus cross-country team put on quite a show after both the boys and girls finished first in the meet held at Griffith Park in Los Angeles on Saturday.
“This was a pretty good test for us, said Saugus cross-country coach Kevin Berns. “A lot of teams were in the top-100 in the state were here and we performed quite well.”
The varsity girls race began at 9 a.m. with the varsity boys race beginning thirty minutes later at 9:30 a.m.
In dominating fashion, the Saugus varsity girls finished the 3-mile race with a total team time of 1:39:34 seconds to finish with a score of 33 points, 31 points ahead of the runner-up Burbank High School.
Freshman Isabella Duarte, sophomore Julia Pearson and Amaya Aguilar led the charge for the Centurions finishing fourth, fifth and sixth in the race. Duarte and Pearson ran a time of 19:48.6 with Aguilar less than a second behind them with a time of 19:49.3 seconds.
What is even more impressive, is that seven of the Cents’ girls runners finished in the top-14 with the top-5 runners being separated by a 21-second gap.
The Cents’ boys were led by senior Jacob Kaufmann who finished the 3-mile race with a time of 16:03 for first-place. Kaufmann finished 13.4 seconds ahead of the runner-up out of Burbank High School.
The Cents were able to place five of the runners among the top-8 runner with Blake Gallardo and Nick Serrano finishing fourth and fifth with times of 16:21.10 and 16:31.3, respectively. James Musasizi and Lothar Hernandez finished in seventh and eighth-place finishing less than a second apart with times of 16:44.4 and 16:45.0.
The varsity boys finished with a score of 25 points and a total team time of 1:22:24 with the 5-man gap at 42 seconds apart.
“We are running up to our fitness level,” Berns said. “If we keep doing what then the results should stay the same. We are running smart, without fear and I think we set the tone for the season to come.”
