Local schools will be well-represented in 10 days’ time at Fresno’s Woodward Park, as both of Turlock’s varsity cross country teams, Hilmar’s girls team, Hughson’s boys team and three individual runners from Pitman, Hilmar and Hughson qualified for next weekend’s CIF State Cross Country Championships after last Saturday’s Sac-Joaquin Section meet at the Willow Hills Reserve in Folsom.

For the Bulldogs, the week was especially historic as it marked the first time ever that the boys and girls teams qualified to the state meet in the same season. It began with the girls, whose combined team score of 91 points was enough for third place. The only other time the girls had qualified for the statewide championships was in 1991. The boys also finished in third Saturday with 82 total points. It’s the second consecutive year that the group qualified, with last year’s appearance being the first in school history. 

Sophomore Maya Day led the pack in the girls race with a 10th-place time of 19 minutes, 43.1 seconds. Freshman Ellison Williams was the second-fastest of the group with a 14th-place time of 20 minutes, 4.3 seconds. Sophomore Mylie Olson was 22nd with 20 minutes, 49.5 seconds, senior Aubrey Webb was 24th with 21 minutes, 4.1 seconds and senior Lilly Edgerton was 29th with 21 minutes, 46.1 seconds. Sophomores Gretchen Nass and Nayeli Solis-De La Cruz wrapped up the race by placing 35th and 36th respectively, with times of 22 minutes, 1.8 seconds and 22 minutes, 6 seconds.

But none of Turlock’s runners finished higher in either of the Division 1 races than Pitman’s Avery Carlson, who qualified individually with a fourth-place time of 19 minutes, 02.3 seconds. The junior is just the second female in school history to ever qualify to state.

Turlock’s boys, meanwhile, were led by a seventh-place time of 16 minutes, 25.6 seconds from junior Larson Wejmar. Directly behind him was senior Theodore Santos with a time of 16 minutes, 29.9 seconds. Fellow senior Logan Petty placed 18th with a time of 16 minutes, 52 seconds. Junior Gabriel Avalos’ time of 17 minutes, 2.6 seconds earned him 24th-place, and was 2.7 seconds quicker than sophomore teammate Zayn Hamilton. Senior Kevin Amador was 35th with a time of 17 minutes, 28.8 seconds and senior Diego Perez was 54th with a time of 18 minutes, 16.5 seconds.  

Over in the Division 4 boys race, Hughson was just nine points off of first-place to punch their tickets to Fresno. Senior Bobby Nieto led the Huskies with a ninth-place time of 17 minutes, 4.1 seconds. The trio of sophomore Mason Hoyle (17:46.1), junior Alessandro Pimentel (17:57.5) and freshman Juan Palos (18:00.7) earned 21st, 27th, and 30th, respectively. Sophomore Carlos Nava earned 37th, 20 seconds behind Palos, and classmate Samuel Alvarado was a second behind him in 38th. Richard Stites was the last Hughson boys runner to cross the finish line after 19 minutes, 13.6 seconds. 

Ahead of all of the Huskies was Hilmar’s Jeffery Mendonca, who placed fifth after finishing his race in 16 minutes, 28.7 seconds. Like Pitman’s Carlson, he will represent his school individually in the boys state championship.

Though the Hughson girls team just missed out on qualifying for the state meet, junior Sophie Benham qualified as an individual. This will be Benham’s second time at the state meet. She qualified two years ago as a freshman, but then a series of injuries kept her off the track, according to coach Bernard. This year, she qualified with a time over a minute faster than her qualifying time two years ago.

Nevertheless, there will be a whole swarm of Yellowjackets competing in the girls competition, as Hilmar’s team finished third overall in their D-4 section race with 85 points. Pacing the pack was senior Sophia Lopes, whose time of 20 minutes, 6.6 seconds earned her an eighth-place finish. Eight seconds behind her was junior Sidney Logsdon, who placed 11th. Freshman Carson Dickey crossed the line 38 seconds behind Logsdon, coming in at 18th place. Harper Dickey was next to finish with a 33rd place time of 22 minutes, four seconds. Junior Emily Corona was a second and a place behind her, while freshmen Gianna Belerique (22:17.9) and Bridget Logsdon (23:09.1) placed 38th and 55th, respectively.

The state meet  gets underway with the Division 1 girls race at 8:30 a.m. An hour later, the Division I boys will take off. At 11 a.m., the Division 4 boys race will be off and running. The Division 4 girls will get going at 12:30 p.m.