DHS Cross Country: Boys Varsity Secure Spot in State Meet With Second Place Finish in D-4 Sections

There's going to be seven Dixon High cross country runners who will have to go hungry for the most part on Thanksgiving Day.

The Rams boys varsity cross country team finished second in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section meet, which qualified them for a spot in the state meet in Fresno on Thanksgiving weekend.

"It's just an incredible performance because we're very inexperienced," said Dixon coach Tom Crumpacker of a team that has three juniors, two freshman and one sophomore.

Full results of the event are available here.

"No one's ever expereinced this type of race before, especially at this level, except Anthony, so to be in that is incredible."

McDermott finished 133rd out of 205 runners at last year's meet. Before McDermott, Crumpacker coached the last Dixon team to reach state in 1996, where Neil Cooper finished 8th and earned the only medal in Rams' cross country history. 

He couldn't contain his astonishment of reaching state.

"Today our guys ran out of their minds and to go from having one person to having a team qualify for state, I've never had that happen and I've never seen it happen before." 

Justin Kemper won the division four freshman boys section title, finishing the 3,330 km course in 12:15.

"If Justin Kemper would run like he did today, he'd be on our varsity team," Crumpacker said. "That's how fast he is."

Kobe Andrade finished 25th in the freshman race, completing the circuit with a time of 13:59.

Crumpacker is excited for the future of Rams cross country.

"It bodes well for the future," he said. "It means that are team is going to be in contention for future state meets."

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