Saugus Girls' Cross Country Second Best At Team Nationals

BY IVAN OROZCO
Staff Writer

If there was doubt that Saugus is California’s best girls cross country team ever, that uncertainty perhaps evaporated Saturday.

That’s because Saugus is the second best team in the nation.

The Centurions, who raced under the name Newhall Cross Country Club, placed behind national champion Manlius of New York, 88-171, at the Nike Team Nationals meet in Portland Ore.

Led by senior Katie Dunn’s fifth place finish and freshman Kailyn Mahoney’s seventh place outing, Saugus was the only team west of the Mississippi river to place in the top four.

Madeline Morgan of Caution of Alabama took first with an 18 minutes, 54 seconds outing. Dunn finished 19:18 while Mahoney clocked 19:23 to help a Saugus 100:13 team time.

Saugus’ result wasn’t an easy task.

The Centurions not only had to face the best runners in the country but they had to battle through a swampy, at times stiff and at times slippery five kilometer course in 35-degree temperature with snow flakes sprinkling down.

Those are conditions California teams rarely face.

“People thought we were going to do bad because were from California, ‘They don’t know anything about snow’.” said Dunn during an internet webcast interview. “So we came out and proved everyone wrong.”

Saugus coach Rene Paragas, who wasn’t allowed to coach the team because the nationals is an event not sanctioned by high school federations, was hoping the squad he coached to two consecutive state Div. I titles would finish at least fifth.

“I thought that was a realistic projection,” Paragas said in a phone interview. “We didn’t know how the course was going to be. I know with 1000 meters left (in the race) we had 10 points separation for fourth and fifth place but the girls up front (Dunn and Mahoney) made big moves to help us get a comfortable second place finish.”

Loyola of Los Angeles (267 points, 85:35) placed eighth in the boys’ race with the help of James Kostelnik’s eighth place individual finish and 16:28 clocking.

While Saugus’ season ended at the team nationals, area runners’ season also eclipsed at the Footlocker West regional meet at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut Saturday.
The meet in which the top 10 runners in the seeded races qualified to next week’s individual national championship featured Highland of Palmdale’s Jeremy Acosta as the best area runner with a 25th place finish in the boys’ seeded race.

Oak Wood of North Hollywood’s Aric Van Halen placed 42nd with a 15:50 outing and Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks’ Charles Maginnis finished 66th with a 16:06 clocking amid area standouts.

Claire Collison of La Crescenta placed 14th with a 17:59 clocking while teammate Rachel Lange finished 25th in 18:15 in the girls’ seeded race. Sadee Martinez of Burroughs of Burbank placed 40th clocking 18:33. Oak Park’s Marissa Diehl placed 15th in the girls’ senior race in 19:47.

ivan.orozco@dailynews.com
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