Central Section XC Season In Review

BOYS RUNNER OF THE YEAR


MARCUS MOTA (Stockdale, Sr.) -- The decision here between Mota, a four-time State Championship participant and two-time Central Section Division I champion, and that of Clovis North junior Isaiah Galindo took some examination. We used the 'Compare Athletes' feature on the MileSplitCA website to help. These two split four 5K races between them, with Galindo running faster at Stanford and the State Championships, and Mota running faster at the Clovis Invitational and at the CS Final. Galindo was seventh in the D-I race at State while Mota crossed 12th. At the section final, Mota was nearly 13 seconds faster in winning while Galindo was third. The deciding factor in selecting Mota is at 3 miles. He ran the fastest time in the section, 14:05.40 (in placing third in the sweepstakes race at Woodbridge), won the Boys Varsity race at the Kern County Championships for the third year in a row, and was fastest from the CS at Mt. SAC. 


GIRLS RUNNER OF THE YEAR


MEAGEN LOWE (Buchanan, Sr.) -- Despite the absence of Corie Smith, her friend and training partner, Lowe was still the second-fastest girl in the deepest division in the state. Lowe followed that performance, and capped her XC career, with an 18.10-second improvement at Nike Cross Nationals. At NXN in Portland, Lowe was 34th overall, third among CA girls and 15th among seniors. Lowe's season included a win and a two-mile PR at Fleet Feet, a class-race victory at Kingsburg, a win at John Seaman, a fifth in the Girls Sweepstakes race at Woodbridge, fourth at Clovis, a first at TRAC (and second title in three years), and a runner-up finish to Smith at CS. In four years at the CS Final, Lowe placed 2-3-1-2. In four years at the State Final, Lowe placed 26-6-2-2. 


BOYS TEAM OF THE YEAR


RIDGEVIEW -- With the team running a 34-second 1-5 split led by the ninth place finish by junior Alex Cuevas, Ridgeview became the first program from the city of Bakersfield to win a state title in cross country. It took the closest finish at the State Finals to make history, a nine-point victory over Campolindo with defending champions West Torrance 23 points back. Cuevas crossed in 15:40.20, junior Ased Adus was 18th overall (15th among team scorers) in 16:00.20, sophomore Gerardo Moreno was next at 16:01.10, senior Bryan Gaxiola was the No. 20 scorer (16:05.20), and senior Jonah Molina was 25th (16:14.30). Ridgeview, which won the CS D-III title for a second year in a row, was sixth at State in 2017, 21st in 2016 and a non-qualifier after placing ninth at CS in 2015.


GIRLS TEAM OF THE YEAR


BUCHANAN -- With Corie Smith and Meagen Lowe out front, Buchanan got a 1-2-5-7-9 finish to win its third consecutive Central Section D-I team title. Without Smith at State, the Buchanan girls still placed sixth in the D-I, by far the highest team finish among CS qualifiers, regardless of division.  Counting Smith, four of the the five scorers at the CS final are all coming back for 2019. Even without Smith at State, four of the five scorers are coming back. Freshman Kaylee Elliott was fifth at the section final as the No. 3 scorer and 57th and the No. 4 scorer at State. Junior Mia Jauregui was seventh at CS (No. 4 scorer) and 46th at State (No. 2 scorer). Sophomore Morgan Hutchison was ninth at CS (No. 5 scorer) and 48th at State (No. 3 scorer). And Junior Rachel Culver was 11th at CS (non-scoring) and 58th at State (No. 5 scorer). The 3-6 gap at CS between those four: 14.75. The 2-5 gap at State between those four: 10.40 seconds