Dominant distance running was on display at the Foothill League finals Thursday morning with no one outshining the Saugus Centurions at Central Park.
The Saugus girls clinched their third straight cross country league title while the Hart boys retained their crown and held off an impressive performance from the Centurion boys.
For the girls, Centurions junior Lucia Pearson won her second career Foothill League MVP after her first-place, 19:00.10 finish. Pearson was the first of four Centurions finishing in the top five of Thursday’s race.
“It helps having a team of girls that are so motivated,” Pearson said. “All of these girls want to be here, and everyone’s not fighting for their spot, but they want to fight for a higher place on the team. I’m really happy with today’s race, and I’m excited to move on to CIF.”
Pearson was followed by teammates Annika Mark (19:11.60) and Sydney Kasahara (19:23.50) who finished second and third on the day.
Saugus freshman Jersey Baker finished fifth overall in 19 minutes and 32.9 seconds.
“We have a freshman, Jersey Baker, and she’s been absolutely killing it all season,” Pearson said. “She comes from soccer. She has such good energy, and then she just blows it away every time.”
The Hart girls had an impressive outing with five Hawks finishing in the top 19, and three finishing in the top eight. Sasha Berry led Hart after finishing fourth overall in 19:29.20. Julia Redwine (19:42.30) finished sixth for the Hawks just ahead of teammate Andrea Aina (19:47.50).
The Hart girls have had an impressive season breaking onto the scene with talented young runners for coach Darren James.
“It’s a lot of new girls, and they’re learning that consistency matters, trusting the process, and those are things that there’s been a little bit of a learning curve there for the past couple of years,” James said. “We’ve got some older girls who are setting a good example for some talented new girls coming in.”
The Centurion boys were led by back-to-back league MVP Sebastian Peraza with a first-place finish of 15:20.30.
“I’m pretty sure everybody thought Eli Ahten at Hart was going to win,” Peraza said. “I’m sure he was projected to win, but I just wanted to do what I did last year. I kind of just stick behind him with pacing throughout and catch him on the hills. And that’s what I did, in all respect to Eli. He’s an amazing runner. All up for Eli at Hart, but yeah, I just wanted to catch him on the hills. Me and Adrian both caught him on the hills. And then after that, we just glided down the hills.”
Peraza had an impressive outing and shaved over 27 seconds off his 2023 MVP finish at Central Park. Just behind Peraza was sophomore Adrian Cantu, who finished in 15 minutes and 32.8 seconds
Aiden Bodell, Brennan Givens and Caleb Fredericks then secured the meet’s win as a pack, as the trio finished 10th, 11th and 12th, all under the 16:10 mark.
Hart secured the Foothill League title with all five Hawks finishing in the top 15 and two more finishing 16th and 17th. The Hawks dominated the league preview back in September, which led to the team having a comfortable lead heading into league championships.
The Hawks had a strong showing but James knows his team can perform better and will hope to see that in the postseason.
“We didn’t run terrible, we just had certain guys that had days off,” James said. “This was really a business trip. We’ve got CIF, the week after next and that’s really the goal.”
Hart senior Ahten (15:47.40) and sophomore Josiah Himsl (15:48.20) finished fifth and sixth, respectively, just ahead of the eighth-place Josue Lopez (15:55.20).
Rounding out the league title with strong performances was Alireza Tofangdar, who finished 13th in 16 minutes and 9.4 seconds. Nicholas Zamora (16:16.80), Samuel Aina (16:22.30) and Alejandro Cueto (16:27.80) didn’t all score to help the win but were impressive finishing 15th through 17th respectively and jumping dozens of local runners.
Aina ran well with a scoring finish despite slipping out of his shoe in the early going of the race.
James was pleased with securing the league title but saw some minor hiccups that the team can fix heading into the postseason.
“We had some guys with the cold weather, they forget to hydrate because it wasn’t hot out,” James said. “Things we can learn from and improve on for CIF. It’s better to have it happen now than then.”
West Ranch’s Braulio Castillo finished third overall in 15 minutes and 41 seconds to lead the fourth place Wildcats.
Owen Souther then finished fourth overall leading Canyon with a mark of 15:46.40 while teammate Roberto Osorio nearly cracked the 15-minute mark in ninth place.
Valencia’s Cash Klinger (15:53.30) finished sixth overall while Luis Torres Orrala finished 14th overall in 16 minutes and 13 seconds.
Back on the girls’ side, Jassmine Enamorado (19:44.30) led the Cowboys with a seventh-place finish. Enamorado was the first of six Cowboys to finish in the top 17. Andrea Racancoj Lopez and Raquel Revilla finished 11th and 13th respectively in just over 20 minutes.
Emily Farrell led Valencia with a 19:48.7-second mark which was good for ninth place one spot ahead of teammate Liana Sushinsky (19:54.90).
West Ranch was led by Hanna Issa, who finished 20th overall just ahead of Castaic’s top runner, Ashlyn Ennis, who finished 22nd.
Mikaila Whitman (20:10.5) and Sophie Bryant (20:28.80) helped round out the win for Saugus with 12th and 14th place finishes.
The Centurion girls have encountered numerous injuries all season, some of which have lingered since the end of track and field back in June. Saugus coach Kevin Berns was thrilled to see his team defend their title and perform as close to 100% as they’ve been all season.
“I can’t praise this team enough on how well they’ve overcome adversity,” Berns said. “Every year there’s something that they have to overcome. And they did it. We were extremely patient all summer and all season. You haven’t heard about us much because we were just waiting and buying time and being patient with the process … We’ve had a lot of the girls start their season a little bit later because of injuries from track season. We’re peaking at the right time.”
Both Saugus teams have high hopes for finishes at state with numerous runners ready to return to the stage in Fresno.
“Last year, I ran state individually, I know we can all make it this year,” Peraza said. “I have confidence that this team can make the podium for state. For me, one of my goals is to at least get top five at state.”
It’s tough to plan on placement so Pearson is just hoping to see her team continue to improve each week with personal records.
“I’m honestly hoping for PRs,” Pearson said. “I’m not a big fan of the Clovis course, but I’m hoping to beat my PR from last year and from the Clovis Invitational this year. So really, just PRs, and hopefully make it to state. Mt. SAC, that’s not an easy course either, but I’m excited.”
Both Saugus, Hart and Canyon teams will advance to the CIF preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College next weekend with hopes of advancing to the CIF championships the following Saturday. The West Ranch boys and Valencia girls also qualified with fourth place finishes.
“We’re ranked 11th right now in D2 and only seven go to the state meet,” Berns said. “By doing the math, we’re on the outside looking in. But what I really love about this team is that we’re trending in the right direction. We’re getting stronger every week, and pending injuries and illness, we have a shot. You give this group of girls a chance, and amazing things could happen.”
Gallery below: Photos by Trisha Anas/The Signal
