Panthers sweep top six spots in Division 1 boys race to produce first perfect score in 96-year history of championship meet, girls also complete move up from Division 2 to win another crown; Mira Costa, Palos Verdes, West Torrance, JSerra, Laguna Hills, Providence and Linfield Christian also victorious at Mt. SAC

By Landon Negri for DyeStat/Photos by Chuck Utash

As it seems like the Newbury Park cross country teams have engaged in a season-long duel of “Anything you can do, I can do better,” it has really come down to this: Both boys and girls teams just keep getting better and better.

On a day of impressive performances Saturday at the CIF Southern Section championship meet at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif., Newbury Park’s boys and girls swept their way to section titles.

RESULTS | INTERVIEWS | PHOTOS

The girls unseated seven-time section Great Oak by 67 points.

About 90 minutes later, the Newbury Park boys then routed the field, placing runners in the Nos. 1-6 position and tallying 15 points to win the Division 1 boys title. It is the first perfect score in the 96-year history of the Southern Section finals meet.

What’s more, the Panthers had their top four runners run together the entire race. All four nearly crossed the finish line together, with senior Colin Sahlman technically getting the win in 14 minutes, 52.6 seconds. Juniors Lex Young (second, 14:52.7), Aaron Sahlman (third, 14:52.8) and Leo Young (fourth, 14:52.9) were there, as well, and senior Daniel Appleford (fifth, 14:59.2) gave the Panthers five runners completing the 2.93-mile course in under 15 minutes. Sophomore Dev Doshi (sixth, 15:00.1) gave the Panthers the first six places overall.

“We wanted to run around 15 minutes, or sub-15, so we ran right where we wanted to,” Northern Arizona commit Colin Sahlman said. “We had our top four up in a group together. It was special running with them. We just kept on trading off places throughout the race.”

This has been their season; one of superlatives and continually topping themselves. Their five-man gap was just seven seconds and yet, Saturday wasn’t the boys’ focus.

“It wasn’t,” Sahlman said. “The main focus is state and RunningLane (National Championships)."

That focus will be next week at the CIF State Championships at Fresno’s Woodward Park, where Newbury Park goes for a second consecutive sweep and could run times not seen before. The top seven teams in most divisions qualified Saturday; the top five individuals not on qualifying teams also moved on.

Many observers believe the Panthers boys are the best team of all time.

“I’m super happy we got the perfect score today,” Colin Sahlman said. “I don’t think any other team could really do that.”

There was a double bonus for him, too. Northern Arizona won the NCAA Division 1 national championship Saturday for the fifth time in six years, with former teammate Nico Young running 11th to earn All-America honors.

“NAU put it out there today,” Colin Sahlman said. “Nico got 11th. I’m super excited to see my former teammate up there, still up there. I’m looking forward to the future for sure.”

So is teammate Samantha McDonnell, who herself is headed to the University of Alabama. McDonnell outraced Saugus senior Isabella Duarte and Great Oak junior Kelli Gaffney as Newbury Park’s girls won a second consecutive section title after moving up to Division 1 from Division 2 this year.

Newbury Park scored 43 points to Great Oak’s 110. Vista Murrieta was third with 163. Junior Ailish Hawkins (fifth, 17:35.7) and freshman Tiffany Sax (ninth, 17:51.4) gave the Panthers three top-10 finishers.

“Coming into this, our team, we wanted to try and race it a little bit just to kind of get one last good race in before the state meet,” McDonnell said. “We were feeling prepared and everything. We weren’t doing much to peak for this but we were definitely going to try and push ourselves here.”

Saugus' Duarte ran an inspired race behind McDonnell and felt the emotions after running 17:17.3. Her four years at Saugus included the 2019 school shooting that killed three students there, including the shooter.

Later, it was revealed the student responsible had been a cross country runner.

The pandemic disruption, which cost everyone a normal 2020 season, then came, as did the retirement of longtime coach Rene Paragas, who won 10 state team titles in his time at the school.

“You know, it’s been a really, really rough four years,” Duarte said, “and I’ve been training for this my entire life. And it’s finally amazing to be out here with these amazing girls and just do it, and just give it all I’ve got. It’s just a real emotional time, especially with everything we’ve been through.”

Incredibly, Newbury Park was not the only program to sweep Saturday.

In Division 2, both Mira Costa teams won in nail-biters.

The girls had to get past a host of solid programs. Led by senior Dalia Frias, who ran the fastest girls time of the day in 16:48.6, Mira Costa tallied 73 points, ahead of Anaheim Canyon’s 82 and Claremont’s 98.

As she’s done all season, Frias ran strong from the start, moving well into the lead by the race’s second half to defeat Peninsula junior Aishling Callanan (second, 17:06.7) and third-place Ventura freshman Sadie Engelhardt (17:21.3).

Two top-10 finishes by teammates helped Mira Costa, as senior Ella Parsley was fourth in 17:26.8 and junior Anna Chittenden was ninth in 17:56.

“I think it definitely helped a lot of us by staying pretty conservative last week, just so that we could really push it today and bring home the win,” Frias said.

“I couldn’t be prouder of my team,” she added later, “and I think we’ve built something great.”

Junior Andrew Martin and senior Seamus O’Meara led the boys by finishing seventh and ninth, respectively, in 15:22.4 and 15:26.4. Mira Costa won with 92 points but had to turn back galiant challenges from second-place Ayala (108 points), third-place Ventura (120) and fourth-place Claremont (120).

Dana Hills senior Jai Dawson won individually in 14:55.2 in a race that at one point or another was led by Claremont senior Chris Coles (third, 15:03.5) and Glendora senior John Sesteaga (15:07.3).

Mason Ma may have had the most satisfying race, though, as he wound up second in 15:00 and led Ayala to a breakthrough performance. Ayala was ranked seventh in the division entering Saturday.

Pasadena senior Isaiah Givens capped his Southern Section competition by winning the day’s first race in Division 3 in 14:48.2, which was also his first section title after placing second two years ago. West Torrance secured an 87-147 victory over Santa Margarita to capture the boys team title.

“It felt really good,” Givens said. “It’s been up and down, obviously. Last week (at CIF-SS Prelims), I didn’t have to go all out, so it was kind of nice to get out here and see what I could do on the course. I’m just glad to be out here competing.”

In Division 3, Chino senior Mia Chavez outran Agoura senior Georgia McCorkle (17:42.4) and Yorba Linda junior Sydney Rome (17:47.7) to win in 17:36.1. Palos Verdes won the team title with 85 points to second-place Brea-Olinda’s 127.

Senior Max Sannes added to the Big Bear legacy of champions with a win in Division 4 in 15:11.4. He follows Ryan Hall (1998-2000), Chad Hall (2004-06) and Caleb Webb (2013-14) as Bears to have won individual section titles. Laguna Hills won the team title by 13 points over second-place Cathedral.

Sophomore Payton Godsey won Division 4’s individual girls title in 17:21.9, while JSerra captured its first section title since 2016 with a 17-point win over La Canada.

In Division 5 boys, Burbank Providence won easily in its first time qualifying a full team for the Southern Section finals. Senior Xander Penaflor led the Pioneers by placing third in 15:33.2, while senior Connor Flynn was eighth in 16:22.6.

In front of Penaflor, Jack “Rabbit” Barnes pulled out a win in the closest race of the day, other than Division 1 boys, by winning in 15;15.0. Leading a bit of a Woodcrest Christian resurgence, freshman Eyan Turk was the runner-up, one second behind, in 15:16.6.

Meanwhile, a long stretch of success ended when Flintridge Prep finished 15th with 354 points. That broke a streak of 25 consecutive years Flintridge had qualified for the state meet, the longest such streak for either gender in the Southern Section.

The Division 5 girls race saw a bit of an upset as Linfield Christian (66 points) knocked off both St. Margaret’s (80) and Viewpoint (89) to win its first Southern Section cross country championship. The Lions were second to St. Margaret’s two years ago.

Viewpoint junior JiaLian Mackey won her first title individually in 17:55.7. Senior Ryley Burns led Linfield Christian with a runner-up finish in 18:38.6.