SD Prep Sports
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Cross Country
Three Metro athletes qualify for 2000 state CIF meet
By Phillip Brents
Three Metro Conference runners will compete at this year’s CIF State Cross Country Championship meet in Fresno. Hilltop senor Desiree Davila will be making her fourth consecutive trip to Woodward Park in search of her first state title while Bonita Vista senior Dusitn Whitson and Sweetwater senior Mark Dionella will both be making their first appearance at the gathering of elite talent.
If Davila is to match her preseason goal of winning the gold medal in Fresno, she will have to do something that no other San Diego Section runner has been able to do this season: beat Ramona’s Loretta Kilmer. Davila saw her string of three consecutive Division II San Diego Section individual championships stopped by the Bulldog harrier at this year's division finals at Balboa Park’s Morley Field. Kilmer recorded the fastest girls time of the day at 16:15 on the 2.75-mile course to outduel both Davila (16:38) and El Capitan’s Jasmine Marquez (16:29). Davila had led after the first mile before Kilmer assumed command on the downhill portion of the race; the Hilltop runner was subsequently passed by Grossmont Conference champion Marquez heading toward the final straightaway.
Davila has placed second, fourth and fifth — in that order — at the three previous state championship meets.
Both Whitson and Dionella — the first- and third-place finishers at this year’s Metro championship meet — earned the final two at-large individual entries to this year's state finals. Whitson finished ninth in the 3.1-mile boys Division I race in 16:43 while Dionella duplicated Whitson’s All-CIF honors with a 10th place finish in 16:44.
The two South Bay runners were involved in a mad sprint with Vista’s Mark Baddas, who edged the pair for ninth place in 16:43. Baddas earned a trip north as a member of division team champion Vista. Poway placed second in the team standings.
Whitson finished 49th last year while battling injuries. He said because of last season’s performance, he was unsure of what to expect at this year’s meet. "I just relied on God the whole race. I just put my faith in Him," said Whitson, who becomes the first Baron male runner to advance to the Fresno state finals since Brian Paff last accomplished that feat his junior year.
Paff, now in college in Michigan, called Whitson earlier in the week to offer a pep talk. "That meant a lot to me to get a call from a Christian brother," explained Whitson, who bettered last year’s time by 30 seconds at last Saturday’s division finals.
Dionella, meanwhile, becomes the first Red Devil runner to qualify for the state meet since Armando Barajas in 1994. Dionella.
"He ran a great race. The kid really deserves the honor. He’s worked hard all four years. I’m proud of him. He’s been a team leader as well as a student-athlete leader," explained SuHi coach Tim Latham, whose team matched its best-ever finish in the divisional finals with a fifth-place finish, winning the tiebreaker (best place of sixth runner) with traditional North County power Mt. Carmel. The fifth-place finish matches the team’s 1997 effort.
A fourth South Bay runner — Chula Vista junior Sophia Marquez — just missed advancing to the Fresno championship meet by one second. With an All-CIF 10th place finish in the girls Division I race at 17:02, she was nosed out for the division’s final berth by El Camino’s Sabrina St. Laurent, who finished in ninth place in 17:01.
Marquez, who finished third overall at the previous week’s Metro finals, said she had used advice from senior teammate Mythili Duvvuri — who qualified for the state meet her sophomore year — in an effort to make this year’s Fresno cut.
"She told me to stay in the top 20 and pick them off on the down hill, and then sprint at the end — give it all you had," Marquez said.
Spartan coach Art Johnson remained enthused by the finish even though Marquez missed the state cut. "The bright spot is that five of the seven girls we had in this race will be back next year," he said.
Bonita Vista finished 10th in the girls Division I team standings, followed by Chula Vista in 11th place.
The Chula Vista boys were 11th in the Division I team standings, followed by Bonita Vista in 12th place. South Bay League champion Mar Vista was 13th in the boys Division II standings, followed by Hilltop (16th) and Eastlake (17th). In the girls Division II standings, Eastlake (11th) finished ahead of league champion Castle Park (14th). The Trojans’ Mandy Johnson (19th, 18:20) managed a top 20 finish. Mar Vista freshman Troy Swier, the individual boys South Bay League champion, was 21st.
2000 CIF Finals photo album (click here)