FOLSOM – East Union’s Julia Vezaldenos picked the right time to turn it on. 

The Lancers senior moved up five spots Saturday from her Sac-Joaquin Sub-Section finish two weeks prior to place 12th overall in the SJS Cross Country Division III finals on the 5,000-meter Willow Hill Course. But more importantly, when the team qualifiers for the California State Championships were accounted for, Vezaldenos was the fifth-best individual time and since she was in the overall Top 14, she too qualified for the state championships next Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.

“I feel good,” Vezaldenos said. “I’m really excited. I think I PR’d for a 5K which is really hard to do on this course.

“In a lot of my races I start out with the pack and then I tend to fall back but I knew this was for something big so I had to dig deep down at the end.”

Vezaldenos traversed the hilly course in 20 minutes 36.3 seconds and will make the trip south with teammate Marco Perez who finished seventh overall (16:55.9) with the third-best individual time.

“This felt good,” Perez said. “I had a good kick at the end and I’m going to state.”

A junior, Perez is optimistic about the future as his Lancers unofficially finished fifth in Division III, just two slots from a ticket to the state championships.

“We have a bunch of young talent over here and a bunch of great runners,” Perez said.

East Union coach Rick Cuevas was pleased with his runners’ efforts.

 “She (Vezaldenos) did a lot better than she did at subs,” Cuevas said. “She came up really well as did Marco (Perez). With both making it that is just awesome.

“With the bad air that came in I wish I would have taken these kids up to the mountains and trained them this whole past week. I was only able to do it yesterday.”

Ripon’s Bennie Dimas placed 11th overall (17:16.3) and had the fourth-best individual time in Division IV, so he will be going to state.  

“He ran a good race,” Indians coach Paul Calkins said of Dimas. “He’s got a smooth stride and when he works hard it shows. He is excited about going to state as a sophomore and it is a pretty awesome opportunity.

“He’s a very talented three-sport athlete – he wrestles and in track he runs and does the pole vault as well.”

Ripon Christian’s Hakyeom Park punched his ticket to state with a fifth-place overall, third-best individual finish (18:28.3) in Division V.

“This was not a surprise to me,” Knights coach Jared Goslinga said. “He (Park) got the whole team excited and motivated this year with the enthusiasm to run. He is a great runner and pushed the other kids on the team to do their best as well. So when he stepped into that team leader role as a sophomore and led the rest of the team that didn’t surprise me as well. He is surrounded by a lot of guys who encourage and support him.

“We have a young team this year with a lot of potential for growth. With some strong leadership and a close-knit group of guys I think we have a lot of exciting things in the future.”