ANAHEIM- With senior Olivia Goins producing a course record-setting performance, the Canyon girls cross country readied themselves for CIF competition with a resounding league finals victory.
Goins won the individual league title en route to leading Canyon to a team time course record at the 2012 Century League Finals Tuesday at Yorba Regional Park.
“Our team has worked exceptionally hard this season and I’m proud of my team because I wouldn’t have been able to do this without them,” Goins said. “The title of league champion is amazing to me.”
Goins, her sister Rianna, and Foothill junior Jessica Cushing-Murray broke away from the main pack early in the race and set the pace throughout the first mile.
The Comanches established a strong team pace early, as five Canyon runners were among the top 10 runners overall in the first mile.
Goins continued to lead into the second mile, and by the final portion of race, had separated herself from the field. She strode across the finish line in a time of 17:09, breaking the previous course record of 17:16 set by former Brea Olinda standout Vanessa Hancock in 2006.
“When I knew I had to make a move to break away, I tried to break away, but there were runners still there with me,” Goins said. “When I threw in my last move, I was able to break them.”
Rianna Goins finished second in a time of 17:17, with Cushing-Murray placing third in a time of 17:22.
El Dorado junior Cassidy Towner (17:27) and Comanches senior Samantha Cadler (17:50) rounded out the top five.
Canyon had all five scoring runners finish in the top nine to total a winning score of 24 points.
“We were ready to race and our goal is to make it to the state meet,” Goins said.
The Comanches’ team time of 88:28 shattered the previous course record of 89:38 set by Canyon in 2009.
“We’ve tried to take a tactical approach to this season and to race course execution,” Canyon coach Patrick Bendzick said. “The focus was to run the strategy of the race course correctly and the girls did a fantastic job of that.”
Foothill (60 points) had five scoring runners place in the top 20 and finished second. Esperanza (93) and El Dorado (101) were third and fourth respectively and earned automatically qualification into the CIF-SS preliminaries.
