Girls Seeded Race
Kristin Fahy, left, and Gillian Wagner (1419) at the 1-mile mark of the CIF D3 final. (Pat Rhames)
Malibu junior Claudia Lane is the defending Foot Locker National girls champion and nothing about her fall season gives any indication that she isn't anything but ready to defender her title.
Lane has run away from the competition so far this season, setting course records along the way. She blazed a new mark at a modified Mt. SAC hilly three-mile layout in October (15:49.00), obliterated the flat Riverside City College 3m course record (15:49.40) and last week put down the fastest time in the history of the 5K Woodward Park track (16:30.30) in winning her second consecutive CIF-State Division 4 title.
Lane has won 20 of 21 races over the past two seasons and in the one race she didn't win, mid-September of her sophomore season, she was second to Brie Oakley, who would later that year win the Nike Cross National title.
With apologies to basketball uber-dad LaVar Ball, there doesn't appear to be anyone who can stay in Claudia's lane.
As for the rest of the field fighting for the other nine spots on the West team ...
We'll start in California where two who battled in the CIF-State Division 3 race, Redwood senior Gillian Wagner and La Costa Canyon junior Kristin Fahy, are both back at FL West.
Wagner won the California D3 race last week after overtaking a staggering Fahy in the final 300 meters. Fahy, who held an eight-second lead at the two-mile mark of the 5K race at Woodward Park in Fresno and continued to maintain that until she couldn't, when she lost her balance, fell and was subsequently bumped when she tried to get up. She wasn't able to finish but vowed later last Saturday after recovering that her season was not over. Hopefully she's at full strength and able to compete at the top of her abilities.
Six weeks ago at Mt. SAC, albeit a different and shorter layout than what is expected this Saturday, Fahy won the Division 3 Sweepstakes race in 16:54 while Wagner was third in the Division 1-2 Sweepstakes race (behind a record-setting Lane and a NXN-bound Lauren Peurifoy) in 17:13.
Fahy was 14th at FLW last year. Wagner, who has California's No. 2 5K time (17:28.20) among runners expected to compete Saturday at Mt. SAC, was 38th in 2016, obviously so long ago.
Of the five California State Divisional champions, Corie Smith (D1) and Haley Herberg (D2) are running at the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Wagner (D3) and Lane (D4) will be at Mt. SAC, and Sonoma Academy senior Rylee Bowen, the D5 winner and a three-time State divisional champion, is calling it a season and looking toward the spring.
Among other top California girls expected to compete for a top-10 position and a spot on the West team that will compete Dec. 9 in San Diego at Foot Locker Nationals:
Chloe Arriaga (Walnut, Jr.): 11th last year and the No. 5 returner who is a two-time CIF-Southern Section Division 1 champion. She was fourth just behind Wagner at Mt. SAC.
Alyssa Bautista (Capistrano Valley, Sr.): Fourth in the State D1 race with a 5K PR of 17:45.60, a nine-second drop from her 2016 best, also at Woodward Park.
McKenna Brown (La Costa Canyon, Sr.): Second to Wagner in the State D3 final and fourth in the D3 Sweepstakes race at Mt. SAC. This is her third time at FLW.
Mari Freidman (Santa Cruz, Sr.): The Central Coast Section champion, was second to Lane in the State D4 race and has with a 5K best this season of 17:49.60.
Alize Hartke (Oakmont, Sr.): Sac-Joaquin Section champion who was fifth at State D2, placed 16th here a year ago. She was second to Fahy in the D3 Sweepstakes in the October race at Mt. SAC. She has a 5K PR of 17:31.60.
Olivia O'Keefe (Davis, Sr.): Won the State D1 title as a junior with a 5K PR of 17:28.90. Sac-Joaquin Section Divisional champion as a senior. Two-time Nike Cross Nationals participant. She was 11th in the State D1 race last week (17:59.20) and may be out for a bit of redemption.
Marea Zlatunich (Aptos, Sr.): Sixth last year with the No. 2 returning time behind Lane. She was a FL Nationals participant. She was sixth in the State D3 race.