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San Lorenzo Valley High School runners Anna Maxwell and Cody Johnson continued their dominance at the section level and will lead their teams to the Division IV state cross country meet.
Maxwell, a sophomore, and Johnson, a junior, won their respective races as the Cougar boys and girls teams won the Division IV titles at the Central Coast Section meet Saturday, Nov. 12, at Crystal Springs in Belmont.
“The kids all ran great races,” Cougar head coach Rob Collins said. “We set goals as a team to bring both teams to state and win our league. They accomplished both of those goals and more. There is so much talent in our league that to achieve what they have is just amazing.”
Led by Vanessa Fraser, who finished just behind Maxwell, the Scotts Valley girls team finished second and qualified for the state meet.
The teams, along with at-large qualifier Scott Edwards, a Scotts Valley sophomore, will travel to Fresno on Nov. 26 to race in the California Interscholastic Federation state meet.
Fraser’s time, 3 seconds after Maxwell’s, would have been good enough to win the Division II title, a different race.
For the boys, Johnson bested Sam Hales of King City by 3 seconds to lead his team to their first section championship of his career. Last year, the Cougar boys placed third and missed qualifying for the state meet by one position. Brothers Nick and Jacob Hicks also earned top-10 spots Saturday with No. 3 and No. 10 place finishes, respectively.
Scotts Valley sophomore Edwards, in sixth place, was the first Falcon boys finisher and earned an at-large bid to the state meet.
The Cougars, meanwhile, stole the show.
The SLV boys beat out Carmel High 55-90 as their top five runners finished in places 1, 3, 10, 14 and 27. The girls crushed Scotts Valley 34-78, with their top five finishing 1, 3, 4, 10 and 16.
Aptos junior Nikki Hiltz, running in the Division III race, turned in the fastest time of the day for the girls in 17:05.
Box:
Division IV Central Coast Section Cross Country Championship
Local boys
Cody Johnson SLV 15:28 First
Nick Hicks SLV 15:47 Third
Scott Edwards Scotts Valley 16:00 Fifth
Jacob Hicks SLV 16:18 10th
Landis Macmillan SLV 16:23 14th
Matt Abernathy SLV 17:08 27th
Stephen Bracken SLV 17:22 38th
Branden Caldwell SLV 17:38 47th
Cody Giguiere Scotts Valley 17:59 53rd
Connor McDermott Scotts Valley 18:18 59th
Colin Abel Scotts Valley 18:20 60th
Draven Hawk Scotts Valley 18:42 69th
Ricky Reksoatmodjo Scotts Valley 18:47 72nd
Sean Anderson Scotts Valley 18:47 74th
Local girls
Anna Maxwell SLV 17:33 First
Vanessa Fraser Scotts Valley 17:36 Second
Claire MacMillan SLV 18:48 Third
Abby Sherman SLV 19:04 Fourth
Abby Utic Scotts Valley 19:09 Sixth
Jessica Germany SLV 19:22 10th
Shannon Youmans Scotts Valley 19:58 13rd
Jessica Jensen SLV 20:05 16th
Hyllery Hershberger SLV 20:55 25th
Hayley Herberg Scotts Valley 21:11 28th
Katrina Luque SLV 21:17 32nd
Vallerie Morrison Scotts Valley 22:31 50th
Courtney Clark Scotts Valley 23:05 68th
