San Clemente ends seven-year run of boys team sweepstakes titles for Great Oak, Rancho Cucamonga overcomes win by Gaffney to become first Division 1 girls program to prevail against Wolfpack at Mt. SAC since 2008; Crescenta Valley standout Simmons shines with 14:46 performance

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

WALNUT – The dominance of the Great Oak cross country programs in the past 15 years has been such that it’s almost more of a story when the Wolfpack does not dominate.

So on Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College, two programs stepped up and broke long Great Oak winning streaks and perhaps asserted that they are now the ones to focus on in the Southern Section come the Division 1 finals Nov. 19.

San Clemente’s boys and Rancho Cucamonga’s girls both swept to Division 1-2 team sweepstakes victories Saturday at the 74th Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational Presented by Nike.

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The Tritons boys snapped a run of seven consecutive wins in combined Division 1-2 races for the Wolfpack, with the Cougars stopping Great Oak’s stretch of 12 straight Division 1 sweeps titles.

Individually, Crescenta Valley senior Parker Simmons won the Division 1-2 team sweepstakes crown with the fastest time of the entire two-day meet in 14 minutes, 46 seconds on the 2.93-mile layout, with Great Oak senior Kelli Gaffney keeping the Wolfpack name among the title winners with her Division 1-2 team sweepstakes victory in 17:33.

Saturday’s team wins were an affirmation of sorts for both Rancho Cucamonga and San Clemente. Ranked No. 1 in Division 1 by the CIF Southern Section, the Cougars placed their five scoring runners in the top 11.

They doubled down on defeating Corona Santiago by 76 points at last week’s Inland Empire Championships against stronger competition, this time downing Great Oak by a 38-93 margin. Torrey Pines was third with 110 points.

It marked the first time Great Oak had not been the top Division 1 girls program in a Mt. SAC team sweepstakes race since finishing behind Dana Hills in 2008. The Wolfpack were third overall last year, but finished behind Division 2 programs Mira Costa and Anaheim Canyon, with Rancho Cucamonga placing 13th.

“I think we really lived up to the expectation and hopefully, we can keep our rankings up,” said junior Madilyn Siana, who was fourth in 17:54. “And I think it’s also really a good motivator going into league finals, CIF and State.”

Rancho Cucamonga’s girls are looking to advance to the CIF State Championships for the first time, and the Cougars are showing they’re motivated.

“Never content,” said sophomore Nicole Alfred, who was sixth in 18:10.

Following Alfred for the Cougars were freshman Braelyn Combe (seventh, 18:12), junior Jaden Miura (10th, 18:23) and freshman Malia Reinhold (11th, 18:23).

“Our coaches always say that we have a big target on our back,” Reinhold said. “So that just means that we have to work harder and keep reaching for our goals. We have to pack up as a team and just try to dominate every race.”

Great Oak placed second Saturday, but was led by Gaffney, who enjoyed one of her finest high school races. She surged ahead in the final mile to outrun Long Beach Poly freshman Avery Peck (second, 17:38) and Mira Costa senior Anna Chittenden (third, 17:44).

Gaffney said sickness stymied her two weeks ago at the 43rd ASICS Clovis Invitational – she finished 60th – and that she had worked hard the last two weeks to recover.

“I was looking forward to this meet specifically because last year, I surprised myself and got second place,” Gaffney said. “And I thought maybe this year, going into Mt. SAC, I could try and win it.

“I’m really stoked that I was actually able to do that today, especially with the past two weeks. It’s been rough getting back into it after being sick.”

Rounding out the race’s top 10 individuals were Santa Monica sophomore Phoebe Benun (fifth, 18:02), Peninsula junior Makenzie Kordic (eighth, 18:15) and Del Norte sophomore Emily Russo (ninth, 18:22).

A third-place finisher in the Division 1-2 team sweepstakes a year ago, San Clemente, which also defended its title at last week’s Orange County Championships, stamped elite status Saturday by placing four runners in the top 13, including three of the top six, in a 44-109 win over runner-up Great Oak.

Senior Juan Chantaca was the individual runner-up to Simmons in 14:55. Senior Rory Catsimanes was fifth in 15:03 and junior Brett Ephraim placed sixth, also in 15:03. Junior Pierce Clark was 13th in 15:22 and twin brother Taj Clark earned 18th in 15:30.

“It’s really great to hear that we broke a (seven)-year streak,” Chantaca said. “... It really shows how strong and the depth that our team has. We keep pushing each other to be great, and it increases our shots of going to NXN, which is really exciting.”

Ranked No. 12 nationally by DyeStat, the Tritons were second at Clovis to top-ranked Newbury Park, which did not run Saturday at Mt. SAC. While among favorites to win a Division 1 state title, the fact that Chantaca was talking about the Nike Cross Nationals shows where the Tritons’ mindset is.

In fact, they celebrated their victory by .... doing an 8-mile cool down.

San Clemente’s five-man gap was just 53 seconds.

“That is definitely what our team is best at, just sticking super close to each other,” Catsimanes said. “Me and Brett try to stay pretty connected to Juan. And then Pierce, Grant (Sestak) and Taj (Clark), they all stay super close to each other, so I think that’s how our team is pretty successful.

“We’re going to keep working on that every meet. Our goal is to shorten the fifth-man gap, and I think we did that pretty well today.”

Great Oak’s runner-up showing was paced by two top-10 finishes, as junior Gabriel Rodriguez placed seventh in 15:08 and senior Mark Cortes was ninth in 15:08.9. The Wolfpack had four in the top 25, but couldn't match the Tritons’ depth.

Crescenta Valley finished third as a team with 137 points and was paced by Simmons. Though Crescenta Valley’s homecoming is this weekend, Simmons opted out of going to the game Friday night, deciding that he “probably needed to conserve my energy.”

“Coming here, I was ready to race,” Simmons said. “I knew it was going to be hard and very uncomfortable, as Mt. SAC usually is. But I was comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

Mira Costa wound up fourth as a team, led by senior Andrew Martin, who was eighth in 15:08.

The Royal senior duo of Jonah Bazerkanian and Noah De La Rionda was third (15:00) and fourth (15:01), respectively, but finished eighth as a team. Arcadia senior Brandon Chang finished 10th in 15:15.