2018 MileSplitCa XC All-State Junior Girls
Skyler Wallace placed third at the State Meet leading Sage Creek to the Division IV title. (Clark Kranz photo)
FIRST TEAM
(Listed alphabetically)
HANA CATSIMANES (San Clemente/SS) -- Holding your own in Orange County is no easy task but Catsimanes was up for the challenge. She was fourth at Mt. SAC (18:01.0), seventh in the Southern Section Division I race (17:03.9, No. 2 time among juniors at the meet) and placed 16th at State (18:07.8). She was far from finished, however, placing seventh at Foot Locker West (18:20.7), earning a spot on the West Region team for the FL National Championships.
CARLIE DOROSTKAR (Canyon Crest/SD) -- A 27-second improvement at Mt. SAC where she was third in the Sweepstakes signaled that Dorostkar was ready to run. And run she did, winning her division at Dana Hills (16:49.3 for 3 miles) before capturing the section D-I title at 17:19.4. She placed fifth at the State Meet at 17:42.7, a 43-second improvement, then called it a season.
TORI GAITAN (Great Oak/SS) -- A front-runner through and through. Gaitan broke the tape first at Woodbridge in 16:06.1, won the Southern Section Division I finals at 16:42.2 and dominated the state championship at 17:19.4, winning by seven seconds. She led Great Oak to the team title. She placed 18th in the Nike Nationals, the first Californian across the line.
MADELEINE LOCHER (Ventura/SS) -- Improving in every important race, Locher started with a second place at Mt. SAC (19:10) before turning it on to win the Pacific View League title (18:18.3 for 3 miles). Next up was a third place in the Southern Section Division II finals (17:06.8) before being the first junior at State in her division, placing fourth (17:49.7 for 5K).
DIANE MOLINA (Costa Mesa/SS) -- Had some great races with Santa Ana's Maria Hernandez which included capturing the Orange Coast League title (16:54). Molina won the Riverside and Laguna Hills Invites as well the D-I Southern Section prelims (17:26.1), placing fifth the next week. At State, Molina was fifth in Division IV (17:58.5).
CORIE SMITH (Buchanan/CS) -- Except for the state finals, where she was sick and didn't run much to the dismay of the home crowd, Smith was nails. She was second at Woodbridge (16:11.1), third at Clovis (17:19.1 for 5K), won her second Central Section D-I title in three years with a 20-second improvement at 17:15.1. Bouncing back from State, Smith received an at-large bid for a return trip to NXN where she placed 53rd.
SKYLER WALLACE (Sage Creek/SD) -- Having her freshman sister Stormy as competition seemed to make Skyler even faster as she led the Bobcats team to their first state title in Division IV. Wallace won at Mt. SAC (17:19.0) and captured the Central Park Invitational (17:12.8) before winning the San Diego Section title (17:23.2). She bagged a Top-5 finish at State, placing 3rd at 17:50.
SECOND TEAM
(Listed alphabetically)
Carly Corsinita (Capistrano Valley/SS) -- A top-5 finisher in five major races, including winning at Dana Hills, before placing 7th in the State Championships in D-II.
Audrey Dang (Great Oak/SS) -- Emerged as No. 3 at the end of the season for the perennial Southern Section and State Division I champions. Placed 19th in the D-I final at State in 18:16.3.
Isabella Fauria (St. Francis/CC) -- The Sac-Joaquin champion in D-II at 18:44.4, Fauria improved to 18:05.6 to place 10th at the State Meet.
Kaimei Gescuk (Carlmont/CC) -- Ran sparingly but won D-I in the Central Coast Section (18:19.6) and was 10th at the State Meet with a PR of 17:56.3.
Arianna Griffiths (Great Oak/SS) -- Ran PRs of 16:27.30 for eighth at Woodbridge and 17:49.40 for seventh at Clovis; key component to Great Oak's team success at Section and State.
Maria Hernandez (Santa Ana/SS) -- Pocketed a top-10 finish (17:53.8) at State in the D-I championship to cap off a quality season.
Azalea Segura-Mora (Claremont/SS) -- Sixth at Stanford, Segura-Mora was the second Wolfpack runner with a 14th-place finish at State, helping lead Claremont to a third consecutive D-II title.
HONORABLE MENTION
(Listed alphabetically)
Maribel Aguilar (Serrano/SS), Sarah Bentley (Palisades/LA), Hailey Kirsch (Valencia/SS), Anna Mokkapati (The Kings Academy/CC), Alexis Neuville (El Toro/SS), Aubrie Nex (Great Oak/SS), Rebecca Schultz (Westlake/SS), Savannah Scriven (Palos Verdes/SS), Samantha Steman (Palos Verdes/SS), Eleanor Wikstrom (Skyline/OK), Kelli Wilson (Monte Vista/NC).