ORANGE- The continuation of Jackson Marshall’s unbeaten streak to start the season helped his Warriors teammates to a big league victory at the Pacific Coast League cluster meet Thursday at Irvine Regional Park in Orange.
Marshall has now finished first in all six races he has competed in this season to date.
“I feel like I have run well in my races and the key for me will be to keep working hard,” Marshall said.
In Thursday’s race, Marshall held a small advantage over Corona del Mar’s Spencer Keith halfway into the race, but began to pull away as the runners reached the two mile mark and took full command just before the final hill.
He crossed the finish line in a time of 15:22.
“My goal was to go out fast and try to pull away,” Marshall said.
With the Orange County Championships a week away, Marshall used Thursday’s race on the same course as an opportunity to prepare for the competition.
“The first dirt hill is tough, but then the course allows you to coast for a while,” he said. “My plan for that race will be to try and stick with some of the top guys for as long as I can.”
Keith placed second behind Marshall in a time of 15:38, with Woodbridge’s Jacob Suiste placing third in a time of 15:44.
The Warriors, ranked No. 6 in the county, had four runners place in the top 10 and won the meet with 31 points.
Corona del Mar, which had the lowest scoring gap among all six schools (48 seconds) was second with 45 points.
Northwood had five scoring runners in the top 20 and finished third with 71 points.
Despite an illness, Northwood’s Bethan Knights prepared for the county championships with a dominant first place effort. She took control of the race early in the first mile and was never challenged, clocking a winning time of 17:17.
“I felt really good and my strategy was just to get out really fast,” Knights said. “Knowing that I will be running the same course next week gave me a chance to see which places I could push myself and put some moves on.”
Knights, who was second in the sweepstakes race at last year’s county championships, is anticipating another challenging race against the county’s other elite runners.
“There is always good competition at that meet and I’m looking forward to having that race where that I can really push it to get a really good time,” Knights said.
Woodbridge’s Jessica Lesser was second behind Knights with a time of 17:40, with teammate Madeline Bradford (18:08) coming in third.
Keyed by three runners finishing in the top five, No. 7 Woodbridge finished first with 41 points.
“I was very pleased,” Warriors coach Bryan Pacheco said. “Our top three ran together in the front where they needed to be and we had a freshman (Elizabeth Dahl) move into the fourth scoring spot which worked out perfect for our team.”
No. 9 Corona del Mar had all five scoring runners finish in the top 13 and placed second with 44 points.
No. 3 Northwood, which competed without sophomore Ashley Larson (illness), finished third with 49 points.
