The Blue Devil cross country teams took the Sac-Joaquin Section Championships by storm on Saturday at the Willow Hill Course in Folsom.

The varsity girls captured the section title, and the Varsity boys were second. Both teams advanced to the CIF State Championship meet at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 29.

The varsity girls convincingly defeated rival Oak Ridge, scoring 26 points to Oak Ridge’s 43. Senior Avery Wolk led most of the race, with Ellison Williams of Turlock trailing close behind from the start. With about 400 meters to go, Ellison made a move to pass Wolk. Wolk responded immediately and recaptured the lead, crossing the finish line eight seconds ahead of Williams in a personal-best time of 17:53.


Wolk’s teammates cemented the victory with the next five athletes all placing in the top nine. Norah Feldt was fourth in 18:50, battling two Oak Ridge runners throughout and splitting between their third- and fifth-place finishes. The Davis victory was assured by the pack of four Blue Devils all finishing one after another in sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth, just ahead of Oak Ridge’s top five who were 10th, 11th and 14th. The pack included Lily Hales-Yang (19:01), Katelyn Secrest (19:10), freshman Layla Wolk (19:12) and Kailee Mallow (19:13).

Natalia Yeager placed 20th in 20:45 to complete the scoring.

The Blue Devils team time of 94:08 was the fastest time of the day out of 50 Sac-Joaquin Section teams. It is the second-fastest Davis High team time ever on the Willow Hill course, finishing just behind the 2016 squad’s time of 93:42 (Olivia O’Keefe, Sofia Castiglioni, Abby Fisk, Annie and Ruthie Mitchell, Sophia Lodigiani, and Sage Taylor). The 2016 squad was second at the CIF State Championships, and went on to finish second at the Nike Cross Country National Championships.

The varsity boys placed second behind Oak Ridge, with the final score a close 53-64. Out of the 50 teams at sections, the DHS boys had the fourth fastest team time of the day, behind Jesuit, Vacaville and Oak Ridge. Sophomore Elias Thronson showed that he is going to be battling out front at the state meet, running patiently for the first mile, then moving into first and never looking back. He won easily in 15:44, finishing 10 seconds ahead of Daniel Barajas from Tokay.


Nicolas Duquette and Zev Fox had strong top ten finishes for the Blue Devils, moving up as the race progressed to place fifth and seventh in 16:04 and 16:13, respectively. Deven Doctor passed 16 runners in the last half of the race, finishing 26th and dropping 25 seconds off his previous best on the Willow Hill course in 17:01. Sebastian Molina De La Rosa was 33rd in 17:15 to complete the scoring. Cameron Pund and Payton Hanks finished out the top seven, running 17:25 (35th) and 17:56 (52nd), respectively. The boys’ overall team time places them at 10th on the DHS all-time Willow Hill course times.

Other divisions
The Blue Devil underclassman runners also raced to great success at sections. The girls swept the team titles, with the frosh/soph and JV girls’ squads joining the varsity girls as Section Champions. The F/S girls swept the first six spots to earn a perfect score of 15 points. Freshmen Natalie Mittleman and Chloe Chak raced up front together most of the 2.1-mile race, with Mittleman taking first in 12:59 and Chak in second with 13:15. Adeleine Glenn, Amel Ben Haj, Cora Bowman, and Izel Antunez Canos swept third through sixth, with Maya Clossick finishing 11th to finish out the scoring.

For the JV runners, the girls raced against runners from all five divisions, and scored 40 points to Whitney’s 54 and St Francis’ 97 points in the nine-team field. Katie Below, Reagan Friend and Lisette Brehler all finished in the top nine, with Below leading the way in fifth (21:52), Friend in sixth (22:05) and Brehler in ninth (22:20). Aida Bozorgchami was next in 11th, and the pack of Marise Brehler, Milana Sordi Green and Laura Kay finished out the scoring placing 15, 16 and 17.


The Freshman boys were victorious, taking first with 25 points over runner-up Folsom with 45. Evan Wise, Alex Kish and Charles Rohrbach swept places 4-6, finishing close together in 12:23, 12:24 and 12:28, respectively. Alexander Takei and Owen Matsuo were 11th and 14th, with Adrian Peters (18th) and Kevric Thomas (21st) finishing the top seven.

The soph boys were led to a strong second place finish by overall winner Alex Pund, who raced in front from the start to win in 11:26. Foster Griffith (seventh; 11:52) and Noah Klein (12th; 12:09) were next across the line, with Patrick Whitby and Joel Uribe finishing the scoring in 16th and 24th. Cooper Carter (26th) and Aidan Mangum (37th) completed the top seven.

In the JV race, which had teams from all five divisions, Jesuit took first with 27 points, with the Blue Devils battling Vacaville closely for runner-up honors. Vacaville bested them narrowly by a score of 51-57. Finishing in the top 10 were Nico Augustine (fifth; 17:21) and Michael Webb (seventh in 17:26). William Luft (12th; 17:46), Liam Anderson (14th; 17:49) and Zypher Asmundson-Wild (20th; 18:01) completed the top five, with Owen Peters (29th) and Jason Kuhner (36th) placing in the top seven for DHS.