Griffiths leads sweep of top four spots as Great Oak secures 12th consecutive girls championship; Murrieta Mesa’s Havins captures boys crown, with Wolfpack rolling to seven straight team title

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

Not that it really needed it, but Great Oak’s girls cross country team might get some welcome help in the postseason.

Arianna Griffiths, the Wolfpack’s standout senior who has spent much of the season coming back from injury, won the girls varsity championship Wednesday at the Southwestern League finals, held at Galway Downs in east Temecula, Calif.

Griffiths led the Great Oak girls to their 12th consecutive league title, with the boys winning their seventh in a row. And they did it mostly running their second teams.

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The Wolfpack boys rested every starter but John Worthy, with the girls resting senior ace Tori Gaitan and sisters Melinda Dang and Audrey Dang.

Still, they had enough to rule this league again. Great Oak’s girls, who won their seventh consecutive Division 1 state championship last year, went 1-2-3-4-7 and scored 17 points. Vista Murrieta, the returning state runner-up in D-1, was second with 53 points. Temecula Valley tallied 81 points for third.

All three moved on to the CIF-Southern Section prelims in Riverside.

Griffiths took control of the girls race in the second half of the double-loop course – the alignment was changed from last year to include the property’s back-side horse track in the 3-mile run – and won in 18 minutes, 2.5 seconds. This followed her ninth-place finish in the Division 1-2 girls team sweepstakes race Oct. 26 at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational.

Griffiths didn’t even race until Oct. 12 at the ASICS Clovis Invitational, as she recuperated from a bone edema in her shin.

“I feel like I’m definitely healthy now,” she said, “and I’m pretty happy about that.”

All seven Great Oak runners earned first-team all-league honors with top-10 finishes. Sophomore Divine Torza (second, 18:08.6), freshman Joelle Upshur (third, 18:11.1) and senior Aubrie Nex (fourth, 18:14.2) followed Griffiths.

Great Oak’s freshmen offered a glimpse into the future, which pretty much looks like the present, as Aishling Fabian placed seventh in 18:21.4 and Kelli Gaffney was eighth in 18:25.2. Senior Ivy Johnson was 10th in 19:04.7.

While ranked No. 5 nationally, Griffiths noted that the Wolfpack can’t ever take anything for granted in the Southwestern League, which produced three Nike Cross Nationals qualifiers combined last year.

“I think there’s definitely always going to be satisfaction in saying we’re league champions,” Griffiths said. “There’s good competition in our league, so I think that it wasn’t a given we were going to win. I think we ran well today.”

Upshur was particularly impressive with an understanding she had an opportunity to shine with Gaitan and the Dang sisters resting.

“I think this was a great chance for me to show that I can live up to expectations,” Upshur said. “And I definitely felt this was a great time to prove to (coach Doug Soles) that I know what I’m capable of, and I’m really excited to get more opportunities like this.”

Vista Murrieta hasn’t run a major invitational since the Hole in the Wall Invitational on Oct. 12 near Seattle. And the Broncos won’t have sophomore ace Devyn Candaele for the rest of the season, as she suffered a hip injury in that race.

But junior Aniya Pretlow kept the Broncos afloat Wednesday, breaking the Great Oak string with a fifth-place finish in 18:16.6. Senior Makayla Fick placed ninth in 18:30.1.

“Just to be one of the top 10,” Pretlow said, when asked what her goal was, “and I was surprised I got fifth.”

Sophomore Paige Thamer led Temecula Valley to a CIF-Southern Section postseason berth by placing sixth in 18:16.9.

Wednesday marked a bit of a breakthrough for Murrieta Mesa senior Cole Havins, who has had success in track and cross country, but who has, at times, had the big finish elude him. It didn’t at Galway Downs, as he took the lead around the mile mark and held off the field, outkicking Great Oak senior Leandro Candray (15:04.5) to the finish line.

“I’ve done many, many kicks in my life,” Havins said. “That was the hardest I’ve ever done. Just to dig deep and just fight down and just push your way all the way to the end is straight adrenaline and straight muscle and will.

“Just to be able to come out on top is absolutely incredible.”

Havins, who won all three league meets, will move on to the Southern Section prelims individually, as will Temecula Valley junior Alejandro Kalmar, who was third in 15:13.3.

Great Oak, the top-ranked boys team nationally, placed five in the top 10, led by Candray. Senior Parker Smith was fourth in 15:16.2, followed by senior Joshua Abrenica (sixth, 15:20.8), sophomore Cameron Smith (seventh, 15:27.1) and junior Austin Montez (10th, 15:33.3).

Great Oak’s boys tallied 29 points to second-place Vista Murrieta’s 73. The Broncos were led by junior Noah Murasmith (eighth, 15:28.5) and senior Malachi Davis-McClaron (ninth, 15:31).

“Maybe a little bit faster, but second place was our main goal for the season, and we accomplished it, so that was good,” Murasmith said.

The closest competition of the day was for the final team qualifying spot on the boys side. Led by a fifth-place finish by junior Jacob Bustamante, Chaparral tallied 88 points to edge Murrieta Mesa’s 91.