Valley Oak League champion Iris Carrilo and Sierra’s Haley Silva placed first and second in Division III girls, while the Manteca boys and Ripon Christian girls teams earned top-three finishes during the Sac-Joaquin Section Subsection Meet held at Frogtown this past Saturday.

The top 10 teams and 10 individuals in each division advance to next week’s section final in Folsom.

Weston Ranch’s Carrilo rambled down the chute in 19 minutes, 42 seconds. Silva trailed the leader by just 4 seconds and led Sierra to a sixth-place team finish with 142 points. Jessa Johnson was 22nd in 21:28.

The Manteca girls sneaked into the section meet by edging East Union 293-298 for 10th place and the final berth in Division III. Ariana Avina (44th, 22:50) spearheaded Manteca. East Union’s Kayla Lecce (41st, 22:40) and Kelley Higginson (53rd, 23:18) qualified as individuals, as did Marisol Baltazar (46th, 22:55) of Lathrop.

Mahir Pepic, the VOL’s reigning boys champion, paced Manteca’s top-three finish (140 points). The Buffaloes’ standout turned in the best time (16:23) among area runners while taking third in Division III. Teammates Brett Kovacs (17:39) and Juan Gomez (17:42) were 20th and 21st, respectively.

Sierra (seventh, 239) and Weston Ranch (ninth, 294) also punched tickets to the section final. Weston Ranch sophomore Tomas Huerta (18th, 17:34) earned a top-20 finish with Sierra’s Garet Stone (23rd, 17:43) not too far behind.

Ellie Waters (20:04) was the fifth runner through the chute in Division IV girls, and she spearheaded Ripon (194 points) to seventh place. Freshman Kayla Jacklich (20th, 22:02) was one of 11 underclassmen in this race to place in the top 20. Alex Norling (13th, 17:30) will be the Ripon boys’ lone representative at the section meet.

Ripon Christian freshman Alysia Templeman (11th, 23:48) and Courtney Bloemhof (13th, 24:36) were in the top 15 for Division V girls, and the Knights ended with a second-place total of 88. Nicola Mussi (29th, 20:59) is the lone section qualifier for RC’s boys.



Lower levels

Lathrop’s Juan Diaz finished third in the sophomore boys Division III race, while Sierra qualified for the section meet as a team with a fourth-place finish behind Trevor Ryan (fourth) and Arish Bala (seventh).

Lathrop’s Crystal Baltazar (eighth) and Manteca’s Natalia Duran (14th) were the area’s top runners in frosh-soph girls Division III.

East Union placed fourth in Division III freshman boys and was led by Christian Ramirez and Abdiel Deliz, who crossed the finish 15th and 16th, respectively. Evan Gibson took 12th in Division IV boys for Ripon.