In the most dramatic finish of the 2018 CIF-State Championships, Jesuit junior Matt Strangio out-kicked West Ranch senior Evan Bates over the final 100m to win the boys Division I title. (Credit: DeAnna Turner)
1. Strangio's Last Ride
Jesuit senior Matt Strangio has built himself quite a resume to this point. In consecutive years he has won State track and field titles in the 3200 (as a sophomore) and 1600 (as a junior).
On the course, he is a two-time Sac-Joaquin Section divisional champion, who placed fourth at the State Meet as a sophomore and, last November, in a dramatic final sprint up the grass at Fresno's Woodward Park to hold off Valencia West Ranch senior Evan Bates, he Strangio won the Division I title. He went on to finish eighth at Nike Cross Nationals, earning second team All-American.
Strangio returns for his season as the No. 4 returner from NXN, the No. 14 returner U.S. for 5K (15:04.50), and, along with Newbury Park's Nico Young, the two runners in CA who are in a class by themselves.
Last weekend, Strangio gave more than a hint that he was ready for all challengers by winning the annual Meet of the Marauders 2.71-mile run to establish Jesuit's season-opening varsity seven by blistering a course record of 13:20, dropping his time from 2018 by 16 seconds!
Game on!
2. Returning Girls Champions
Each of the five girls division winners from 2018 return for 2019. Natalie Harper, now a junior at Cosumnes 
Oaks, won in Division 1. Senior Isabella Fauria (Sacramento St. Francis) won D2. Del Oro sophomore Riley Chamberlain won D3, El Dorado senior Madison Hutchings won D4 and Lake Forest senior Amber Jackson won D5.
Chamberlain, who went on to win the State D3 title, was by far the fastest of the five champions on the 5K Willow Hills Reservoir course, running 17:57.00. Fauria was second fastest among the champions, running 18:44.40 in a race that also produced the third and fourth fastest times, both by freshmen: Natalie Wieland (Ponderosa) 18:48.80 and Fauria's teammate Cate Joaquin (18:58.70). (Isabella Fauria is pictured at the State Meet. Credit: DeAnna Turner)
3. Chamberlains Epic Launch
During her freshman fall, her first season of high school competition, Del Oro's Riley Chamberlain established herself as one of the elites beyond just the borders of California. Her 5K best of 17:12.70 for second at the Clovis Invitational (run on the State Meet course, Woodward Park in Fresno), ranks No. 2 among returners in CA, No. 17 among returners nationally, and No. 4 U.S. in the Class of 2022.
In 12 races last XC season, Chamberlain won 10 times and placed second once (at Clovis, to eventual State Division 1 champion Tori Gaitan of Great Oak (SS), by three seconds).
Chamberlain won the SJS title by more than a minute and at State, she outdistanced Southern Section D3 champion Sarah Shulze (Oak Park) by 16 seconds.
Chamberlain's 18:40.10 for 62nd at NXN last December 1 is the only outlier on her otherwise stellar first-season resume. And even that has to be taken into context: She was a freshman, already with a California state title, closing out her first high school XC season with an invite to travel to Portland for NXN.
Throw the result out at that point. She'd already won the season.
4. Boys to watch not named Strangio
The only other returning boys division champion in the SJS is Jayden Spires of Tioga, now a senior, who won the D5 title over another 2020, Waterford's Jonathan Staley, by 45.90 seconds.
Strangio has the No. 2 returning 5K time in the state (15:04.50). There is a 30-runner gap between Strangio and the No. 2 returning boy in the SJS. That runner is Whitney senior Austin Vasquez, who placed second in D2 in 16:03.40 and has a PR of 15:40.40.
Godebo Chapman, a junior at West Campus (Hiram Johnson), runner-up in D4 (16:22.80), went as low as 15:46.10 to win his race at the Pacific Tiger Invitational. Chapman (bib 1595 above) ranks just above Whitney senior Ethan Dodge, who went 15:46.20 at the SFL Championships.
All these boys rank top 50 for 5K among returners in CA. Other top returners include: Jesuit senior Chase Gordon, Vacaville senior Daniel Hernandez, Merced senior Cole McKain and Davis junior Ansel Tucker.
5. Boys Teams to Watch
Jesuit with 27 section titles naturally defaults to the top of this category. But the Marauders return only Strangio and Gordon from the team that went 1-2-4-5-7 (9-18) at the SJS finals.
Runner-up Davis, 59 points behind, returns its top two scorers in junior Ansel Tucker and senior Zeno Castiglioni, plus senior Dice Ferrick, who also took the line at SJS.
Whitney, which held off Rocklin, 53-58 to win the section D2 title, returns six of seven who took the line at SJS finals, including four scorers in seniors Austin Vasquez and Ethan Dodge, the top two scorers, and juniors Ajani Salcido and Jason Finta.
Placer, which had the highest finish of any SJS boys team at State, placing third in D4, returns just two of the seven who took the line in Fresno, seniors Devin Muzzy (26th) and Nathan Reid (95th).
6. Girls to Watch Not Named Chamberlain
Junior Madison Kackley (Gregori) was 12th at State in D-I (17:58.40) leading a group of four from the SJS to place among the top 50 in that race: Junior Abigail Fletcher (Oak Ridge) was 35th (18:40.60), junior Ana Fenton (Davis) was 37th (18:41.60) and junior Natalie Harper (Cosumnes Oaks) was 45th (18:52.50).
The St. Francis duo of senior Isabella Fauria (18:05.60) and sophomore Cate Joaquin (18:13.80) was the only top-50 returners in D-II. In D-III, now-junior Anna Vogtmann placed third (18:44.40) in leading Folsom Vista del Lago to the team title. She was the only sub-19 minute runner from the section in that race.
The Oakdale duo of now-sophomore Haleigh Humble (19:15.90) and senior Kayden Legan (19:25.20) placed 30th and 39th, respectively.
In D-IV, section champion Madison Hutchings (El Dorado) placed 12th (18:31.90) as the only sub-19 runner from the SJS in that division at State. Calaveras junior Katarina Borchin was well back in 43rd (19:25.10).
In D-V, SJS champion Amber Jackson placed third (18:27.00) with Western Sierra Academy senior Sara Sabra the next returning finisher in 27th (19:48.20).
Woodcreek senior Lisa Irvine posted one of the fastest 5Ks among SJS returners when she went 18:24.60 at the Capital Cross Challenge. Armijo junior Alex Meza (18:34.30) and McClatchy junior Julia Heckey (18:42.00) also posted 5K times that rank among the top 15 returners in the section.
Folsom Vista del Lago won the State Division III title last season. (Credit: Dan Tyree)
7. Girls Teams To Watch
Maya Barragan, a junior last season at Folsom Vista del Lago, placed 53rd in the Division III race at the CIF-State Championships last November at Woodward Park in Fresno. Barragan ran the 5K course in 19:36.30. So what? Barragan's placing as the 35th runner among scoring teams was 41 places ahead of the fifth scorer for Palo Verdes (SS) and an instrumental reason for VdL's State Championship victory. It takes seven on the line and five to score and while it's extremely rare for recognition of the 53rd-place finisher, sometimes that's the runner who makes all the difference. Anna Vogtmann, who returns to VdL for her junior season, placed 13th at State (18:44.40) and Sophie Pelletier, now a senior, was 49th (32nd among scoring runners) in 19:34.30. In fact, returning senior Abby Carter, placed a non-scoring 64th, which was also faster than PV's No. 5.
While VdL has the hardware, the hype going into 2019 is on Sacramento St. Francis. This group placed eighth in Division II at State last year and returns six runners who took the line at Woodward Park. Senior Isabella Fauria, 10th at State (18:05.60) leads the squad. Sophomore Cate Joaquin (15th, 11th among scorers in 18:13.80), senior Haley Silva (64th/53rd in 19:09.30), sophomore Tatiana Cornejo (89th/70th in 19:28.50), and non-scorers sophomore Emily Castles (20:11.10) and junior Hanna Hekkanen (20:41.50) all return.
The biggest challenger to St. Francis figures to be Rocklin Whitney HS. The Wildcats placed second to St. Francis in the D2 race at SJS, 41 points behind, but didn't have their best showing at State. However, last year's team with without a senior and had just one junior. Of the four returners who placed among the top 20 at the section final, three were freshmen. Now a sophomore, Grace Lathrop was the top finisher at the SJS meet, running 19:55.50. Not too far behind was now-sophomore Natalie Eppler, senior Brooke Giorgi, junior Jessica Becker and sophomore Elena Collier. Juniors Grace Pierce and Kirsten Ransford also placed top 27.
In Division I, Davis -- formerly Davis Senior High -- was fifth at State and returns junior Ana Fenton (18:41.60).