STATE MEET PREVIEW What to Watch for in Division III

Top Individual Storyline

With the top 11 finishers from last year and 14 of the first 15 finishers graduating, this is a wide-open race.

Individual Competition

Dana Hills sophomore Evan Noonan not only won impressively at Mt. SAC, he predicted he'd be the one to beat at State.

Noonan captured the Southern Section title by 10 seconds in 15:03.7, again dominating the Mt. SAC course.

Based on last year's results, you have to go down to 12th place for the next highest returnee, Oakdale's Caleb Cavanaugh.

But at the Sac-Joaquin championships, Cavanaugh was the No. 4 finisher for Oakdale as Ponderosa junior Joshua Chu scored a 1.6-second win over Oakdale 11th-grader Omar Alsaidi.

Campolindo senior Alexander Lodewick ran 14:59.65 at Hayward ahead of teammates Connor McGhee (15:15.17) and Blake Webster (15:21.22).

Templeton junior Joshua Bell, who was 18th last year, is also poised to challenge Noonan after winning the Central Section title by a minute (15:31.64) in a time that would have placed him 10th a year ago.

Top Team Storyline

It looks like a showdown between Sac-Joaquin champion Oakdale, Southern Section titlist Dana Hills and North Coast winner  Campolindo, runners-up here last fall.

Team Race

All three teams - Oakdale, Campolindo and Dana Hills -- have a gap and at the State Meet, that can be devastating.

The most impressive section champion was Campolindo. The Cougars went 1-2-3-7-16 with a 55-second gap between No. 3 and No. 5.

Oakdale won the Central Section going 2-3-5-8-18. The margin between the No. 1 Mustangs runner and the No. 4 was 53 seconds. However, it was 37 seconds back to the No. 5.

Dana Hills scored 89 points. There were 16 teams in the Dolphins' race. The gap between No. 1 and No. 2 was 54 seconds but only 23 seconds for the next four Dana Hills finishers.

Moorpark of the Southern Section ran well to top Santa Margarita, Thousand Oaks and West Ranch. Sage Creek of the San Diego Section upset University City and sent La Costa Canyon packing.

GIRLS

Individual Breakdown

When you're the defending champion you have a target on your back. Not that it seems to have bothered the Montgomery sophomore.

Thomsen cruised to victory in the North Coast Championships, clocking a 16:30.60 at Hayward HS. That beat Campolindo senior Ellie Buckley, who also happens to be the next fastest returnee from 2021 where she was fifth, by 34 seconds.

The only number next to Thomsen indicating her place in any meet was the No. 1.  She is a huge favorite.

Although Yorba Linda (SS) junior Sydney Rome was sixth a year ago, she was fourth in the Southern Section championships last weekend. The winner there was Dana Hills (SS) senior Allura Markow, who ran 17:31.4 over Mt. SAC's mountains.

One of the most impressive section victories was run by La Costa Canyon junior Gioana Lopizzo who won the San Diego Section by 49 seconds in 17:12.7 over the always-challenging Morley Park course.

Team Race

Although Campolindo won the State team title a year ago impressively, coming in they were expected to get a push from Cathedral Catholic. The week before State the flu bug bit the Dons who considered a third place team finish a success.

Cathedral Catholic and Campolindo have been 1-2 all year in this division and nothing at the section championships raised a red flag 

Campolindo dominated the North Coast Section going 2-3-9-10-13. Cathedral Catholic wasn't quite as impressive, winning its title with a 4, 6, 10, 11, 12 finish.

Looking at the gaps, it was 78 seconds between 1 and 5 for Campolindo. For Cathedral Catholic it was 55 seconds between 1 and 5. That might seem like a big difference, but Campolindo would appear to have the faster front-runners.

Dana Hills won the Southern Section title but the bigger gaps among the Dolphins' top five could prove costly with the quality State fields. University City, La Costa Canyon and Sage Creek all ran well in San Diego.