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Foothill on top in Century League
ANAHEIM - The Foothill girls cross country team accomplished something Wednesday that it hadn’t done in almost a decade.
Now, the Knights hope the momentum gained from their victorious effort can spur them against some of Southern California’s top teams.
The Knights placed three runners in the top six to win its first team league title in nine years at the Century League Finals at Yorba Regional Park.
“I think what helped was that we had really good workouts last week,” said Knights coach Matt Bell. “I was encouraged that it would help them with their confidence coming into today.”
The Knights were led by sophomore Jessica Cushing-Murray, who was second in a time of 17:39.6. Junior Audrey Wilcox (17:49.8) and sophomore Alison Mattias (17:51.1) were fifth and sixth respectively, and Foothill had five scoring runners in the top 15 to produce a score of 39 points.
“We’ve worked hard this season and are trying to take it one race at a time,” said Cushing-Murray. “At CIF prelims, we just need everyone to stay healthy and have another good race.”
Canyon, which also had five runners in the top 15, finished second with 48 points. Esperanza (97) and El Modena (111) rounded out the top four and qualified for the CIF-SS preliminaries.
The individual title went to El Modena senior Julia Lipson, who took a small early lead at the first mile marker and extended it throughout the second and final mile to win in a time of 17:31.6, which is tied for the eighth-best in the history of the meet.
“I knew that a lot of the girls that I was competing with have more speed, so I knew that I had to have a large enough lead so that their speed couldn’t get them through it,” said Lipson, who was 34th in last year’s league final race.
“When I was a freshman, I told myself that I wanted to do this, and being my senior year, this was my last shot. I feel so proud of myself.”
Lipson credited her effort to the work she has put in with personal running coach Charmella Seacrest.
“Running well on this course tells me that I have the toughness in me to push myself against girls that have talents in certain areas,” she said. “My coach is big on hills and I’m confident and prepared for Mt. SAC.”
