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San Lorenzo Valley High School proved this week that their cross country teams deserve to be mentioned among the Bay Area elite. Both the boys and girls teams took home the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League titles with dominant performances last Thursday and will represent the SCCAL in the Central Coast Section cross country meet this week.
“As far as I know this is the first time in school history that we have pulled off both boys and girls team wins (in the same year),” said Cougar Head Coach Rob Collins. “I am so proud of all of our runners today.”
Scotts Valley High School’s boys and girls teams also head to CCS after both the boys and girls finished in third place in the league finals.
The CCS meet will be held Saturday, Nov. 12 at Crystal Springs Cross Country Course in Belmont .
Girls
The varsity girls race was a run for the ages, as the top four finishers shattered the course record of 17 minutes, 34 seconds at Pinto Lake in Watsonville, where the league finals are held each year. Aptos runner Nikki Hiltz, a junior, won the race with a course record 16:53 on the 2.9 mile course. Hot on her heels was SLV sophomore Anna Maxwell who lost only two races this season, and both have been to Hiltz. Maxwell finished in 16:56 — 59 seconds faster than her mark from last year. It was Maxwell’s second consecutive second place finish in league. Last season, she took second one second behind Scotts Valley’s Vanessa Fraser in 17:56.
“I really just wanted to PR (personal record),” Maxwell said. “When I saw the clock at 16 minutes I got pumped. I was like ‘Oh Yeah! Goal achieved.’”
The Cougar girls, who bested the Mariners 41-51 in team scoring, are the first team in the last six years to beat Aptos girl runners. The Mariners had won the past six titles dating back to 2005.
Fraser set a new personal record for the course while finishing third behind Hiltz and Maxwell. She posted a time of 17:23 after running 17:55 last year, when she won the race.
“We were all a nice tight little pack until about the half way point,” Fraser said. “That is when Nikki started to pull away. She is so fast, so improved. It is amazing.”
SLV’s Claire MacMillan (18:29) finished seventh, Scotts Valley’s Abby Utic (18:38) finished eighth, SLV’s Abby Sherman (18:42) came in ninth.
Both SLV and Scotts Valley will advance to the CCS meet along with Aptos, Santa Cruz and Saint Francis.
Cougar boys dominate
Local runners took the top five SCCAL positions led by SLV’s Cody Johnson who won the league title with a time of 15:33.
Cougar Nick Hicks took second in 15:39. Johnson and Hicks also finished first and second last season when Johnson edged out Hicks in 16:20.
Scott Edwards of Scotts Valley finished a strong third in 15:52 and knocked off 1:08 off his PR from last season.
SLV senior Landis MacMillan earned fourth in 16:13 and teammate Jacob Hicks grabbed fifth in 16:22. Matt Abernathy finished seventh for the Cougars in 16:49 and SLV’s Branden Caldwell was eighth place with a time of 16:51.
This was the Cougar boys third consecutive SCCAL title.
“This is huge,” Johnson said. “Now we just have to focus on (the Central Coast Section meet) and make it to state. We are as good as any team out there.”
