Palmdale Highland senior Donis achieves fastest overall time at 14:35, with Lex Young edging Leo Young 14:38.1 to 14:38.2 as Panthers are primed for state final; San Clemente shines in Division 1, Noonan leads Dana Hills in Division 3, St. Francis triumphs in Division 4 and Viewpoint wins Division 5

By Pete Marshall for DyeStat

WALNUT – If high school cross country fans are wondering if the juggernaut Newbury Park boys cross country team will ever falter, the answer is: not Saturday.

At the CIF-Southern Section Finals at Mt. San Antonio College, Newbury Park won its fourth straight section title, with a dominating team score of 25 points in the Division 2 final.

And for the fourth straight year, Newbury Park – the top-ranked team in the country – took home an individual champion as Lex Young (14:38.1) edged out his twin brother Leo Young (14:38.2), with teammate Aaron Sahlman (14:43.8) taking third.

“It’s all about the teamwork and camaraderie between us,” Leo Young said about continuing Newbury Park’s success after last year’s historic run.

“We attack practice every day with an attitude of working together and trying to enjoy it and try to build something special. I think that’s reflected once we get on the course. I think as a team we executed really well and worked together.”

All five of Newbury Park’s scorers finished in the top 12, with Brayden Seymour – competing in his first section final after transferring from Hagerty High in Florida – taking sixth (15:00.6) and Dev Doshi placing 13th (15:24.5).

And, of course, with bigger goals in mind, like the CIF State Championships in Fresno next week, it’s important to stay healthy.

“This course, one of the biggest reservations our team has had in the past is the downhill,” Lex Young said. “It’s dangerous because you can risk over-extending your legs and maybe pulling a muscle. That happened to me last year actually. I had a slight thing that put me out for two days. What we do to combat that is make sure we give a really good effort up the hill but then when it comes to the downhill we understand as a group we’re not trying to push.”

Ventura was second in the race with 90 points, with Anthony Fasthorse taking fourth in 14:57.3 and Micah Grossman finishing fifth in 14:58.6.

“We’ve had a rocky season.” Grossman said. “We’ve had some great individual performances here and there, but we’ve always had a sickness or somebody injured depending on the meet. Today we were all able to finish, which was good. It still wasn’t perfect… (but) we fought well and we still got second.”

While Newbury Park rolled to victory, the Panthers did not have the top individual time of the day: that belonged to Matthew Donis of Palmdale Highland, who won the Division 1 race with a time of 14:35.0, by a margin of nearly 25 seconds.

“I think I might’ve been able to get the course record if state was here,” Donis said. “I feel on top of the world right now, but this is just the first step on getting that state title.”

Donis, who set a course PR Saturday, said he sensed weakness in his opposition Saturday.

“I noticed everyone was tired, so I took advantage of that,” he said.

Donis, who became the first boys section champion in program history, is advancing to state for the second straight year as an individual after taking 10th in Division 1 last year in 15:07.6.

San Clemente edged out Great Oak by a 73-95 margin to take the team title in Division 1, the first team section title in school history.

Juan Chantaca took second to lead the Tritons, with a great kick at the finish line, edging Parker Simmons of Crescenta Valley by a 14:59.8 to 15:00.4 margin.

“The race started off really slow and started picking it up after the second mile,” Chantaca said. “I saw Parker in front. I thought to myself, ‘If I close this race, I can get second.’ I had that burst of energy.”

The Tritons had to battle some adversity this week.

“Going into the race we had some concern because some of us had sicknesses,” said Rory Catsimanes, who took ninth in 15:11.5.

“We ended up being able to pull through.”

In Division 3, Dana Hills took the team title, the first team section team title since winning Division 1 in 2009. Since then, the Dolphins have been a section runner-up six times. Dana Hills’ 89 points easily defeated runner-up Moorpark (125).

Dana Hills sophomore Evan Noonan took home the individual title with a time of 15:03.7, following the Division 2 victory last year for the Dolphins by Jai Dawson, now a UCLA freshman.

“Individual champion is always nice, but having a team champ is great because everyone’s in a happy mood,” Noonan said. “We sparked a new start to CIF Championships.”

In Division 4, Cathedral’s Emmanuel Perez took first  (14:50.5), but it was La Canada St. Francis winning its first section team title, edging Palos Verdes by a 76-93 margin.

“First mile, I was in a pack,” Perez said. “It was scary to know who was going to make a move. Second mile, I started jumping some kids then on Reservoir (hill) that’s when I didn’t see anyone behind me.”

Hayden Owen took fifth in 15:10.9 and was St. Francis’ top finisher, as the Golden Knights had five scorers in the top 30.

“It feels really good. It feels like we made our team proud, our school proud, our coaches proud,” said Samuel Franco of St. Francis, who was 18th in 15:55.2.

“We worked for it and we deserve it.”

In Division 5, it was Viewpoint that won its first section title after coming up short in 2019, but winning a state title that year.

Viewpoint’s 123 points edged out St. Margaret’s, which was second with 135.

The individual title went to Eyan Turk of Woodcrest Christian, who won by nearly 22 seconds in 15:14.3. Turk is the school’s first section champion since 2008.