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Weston Ranchs Carrillo flirts with top-10 finish at state meet
Weston Ranch cross country file photo
Tomas Huerta, right, finished in 32nd place in the CIF State Cross Country Division IV Championships in Fresno on Saturday. Weston Ranch teammate Alec Araquel, also pictured, took 56th. - photo by JONAMAR JACINTO/Bulletin file photo

FRESNO — So close.

Competing in her second CIF State Cross Country Championship Meet, Weston Ranch junior Iris Carrillo finished one spot shy of a top-10 medal Saturday when she completed the 5,000-meter course at Woodward Park in Fresno in a personal best of 18 minutes, 17 seconds for an 11th-place finish in Division IV.

This represents an improvement of more than 40 seconds from her 2014 effort when she finished 26th in 18:58.

Cougars teammates Tomas Huerta finished 32nd (16:15) and Alec Araquel 56th (16:35) in Division IV.

The Sierra boys qualified as a team in Division IV, finishing 21stout of 23 teams with Arish Bala leading the Timberwolves, finishing 91st (16:52).

“I was really happy with our performance,” Sierra coach Mike Rosendin said. “The kids came out and competed. Just watching the race, they were all focused and engaged, running some of our fastest times of the year. We all felt really good about what happened.    

“Place-wise, we were 21 out of 23, but that’s not what was important. What was important was doing our best and walking away knowing that we want to come back to this meet.”

Rounding out the Timerwolves attack was Garet Stone (109th, 17:02), Isaias Ghezae (125th, 17:15), Trevor Ryan (145th, 17:39), Jesse Hurtado (149th, 17:46), Sabas Montes (151st, 17:48) and Anthoy Sequeira (125th, 17:50).