Falcon boys take first league title; Four local teams qualify for section meet

The Scotts Valley High School boys cross country team defeated all comers, including a push by perennial powerhouse Aptos High School, to capture its first Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League title in school history.
The race took place Saturday, Nov. 9 at Pinto Lake in Watsonville.
The Falcon boys finished with a team score of 27 points, the total score of the top five finishers, narrowly edging out the Mariners, who finished with 29 points.
Aptos took the top two spots in the race, but junior Nick Heath (in 15 minutes, 51 seconds), sophomore John Ross (15:57) and senior Scott Edwards (16:01) took third through fifth, followed by teammates Draven Hawk (16:14) in seventh and sophomore Luke McCartney (16:18) in eighth to round out the Falcons scoring.
Along with the top two places, Aptos took sixth, ninth and 11^th and it wasn’t enough to move past the Falcons.
Other Scotts Valley runners were Porter Wesson in 10^th in 16:21 and Brett Klotz in 12^th in 16:31.
San Lorenzo Valley High School’s boys took third in league with 82 points as Eli Youth (13^th in 16:32), Jacob Hicks (15^th in 16:34), Matt Abernathy (17^th in 16:48), Jacob Anderson (19^th in 17:18) and Alejandro Corona (21^st in 17:25) rounded out the scoring.
Both the Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley boys earned an automatic bid into the Division IV Central Coast Section finals on Saturday, Nov. 16 at Crystal Springs in Belmont. Last season, the Falcons finished third in the CCS and qualified for the state meet while the Cougars finished 8^th.
Maxwell wins first league title
San Lorenzo Valley High School star runner Anna Maxwell broke the course record and won her first SCCAL championship at the 2.95 mile Pinto Lake course on Saturday, Nov. 9. Maxwell broke her own record by 17 seconds and blazed to a time of 16:30, outpacing second place Clare Peabody of Aptos, who took second in 17:27. Sophomore Cate Ratliff of Santa Cruz took third in 17:36.
Aptos won the meet with an overall score of 32, followed by SLV with 42 points and Scotts Valley with 68. All three teams qualified for the Central Coast Section meet on Nov. 16 at Crystal Springs in Belmont.
For the Cougars, Claire MacMillan was fourth in 17:45 and freshman Abbey Meck (10^th in 18:52), senior Jessica Jensen (11^th in 18:57) and freshmen Katie Lamb (16^th in 19:37), rounded out the Cougars scorers.
For Scotts Valley, senior Valerie Morrison was fifth in 18:01 while junior Hayley Herberg (13^th in 19:17), sophomore Mikaela Inman (15^th in 19:18), sophomore Maddy Barton (17^th in 19:43), and sophomore Katelyn McNulty (18^th in 19:53) rounded out the top five.