Cross Country: Trabuco Hills, San Clemente Win D-I State Crowns

Taking the finish line en masse and scoring in bulk, Trabuco Hills won its second state championship in five years Saturday when its boys' cross country team finished first in the California Division I State Meet. 

San Clemente, with a sophomore and two freshmen among the top five, won the girls' race. St. Margaret's Billy Gaudreau won his second consecutive state title as the Tartans won the Division V championship.

Although that was impressive, it was hard to beat the collective performance of Trabuco Hills. The five scoring runners for the Mustangs finished in the top 35, with three of them in the top 16 in the 3.1-mile event at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Leading the way were Jared Hazlett, Nick Plumb and Naoki Omatsu, who finished ninth, 14th and 16th. Kevin Marshall and Max Moncur took 28th and 34th to complete the scoring and give Trabuco 71 points, enough to finish ahead of second-place Arcadia (87). Following in order were Rancho Cucamonga (124), Temecula Great Oak (159) El Toro (160) and Dana Hills (184).

Only the top five runners for each school scored points that are counted toward the total; Luke Dorman took 59th in a non-scoring role.

Trabuco was so strong that only 30 seconds separated Hazlett (15 minutes 25 seconds) and Moncur (15:55). The combined time of the top five runners (78:12.30) was seven seconds faster than the next-closest team from any of the five divisions, Arcadia.

Kevin Durham of El Toro was the highest finishing runner from Orange County, clocking a fourth-place 15:18. The race was won by Arcadia's Sergio Gonzalez (15:05). Hazlett was the county's third-highest finisher.

In the girls' race, San Clemente had runners finish 13, 21, 29, 34 and 43 to claim the girls' championship. The Tritons totaled 87 points, followed by Vista Murrieta (105), Marina (138), Sacramento St. Francis (162) and Dana Hills (187).

Leading the way for the Tritons were sophomore Melissa Eisele (18:20) and Molly Mann (18:34), followed by freshman Graci Georgi (18:50), freshman Kelsi Carroll (18:53) and junior Elizabeth Hays (19:02).

The race winner was Hagen Reedy (17:27) of Fresno Buchanan. The fastest runners from Orange County were Marina senior Laura Hollander (second, 17:32), Aliso Niguel's Danica Wyson (12th, 18:18) and Eisele.

In the Division V boys' race, Gaudreau set a Division V record with a 15:28 clocking. Junior Brandon Price (15:47) and senior Paul Brenneman (15:48) finished fourth and fifth. Sophomore Hunter Edington finished 16th (16:25).

JSerra won the girls' Division IV title behind Brooke Kunzelman (19:00), Ashley Geisler (19:01) and Hannah Hunsaker, who finished 20th, 21st and 28th.

One of the other top finishers locally was Kyler Fisk (15:22) of Tesoro, who took fourth in the Division II race.

The national championship meet is Saturday in Portland, OR.

Editor's Note: This article originally omitted the JSerra girls.