Cross Country Advances to State Championships; Wins Frosh/Soph Section Title

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FOLSOM, Calif. – The St. Francis cross country team qualified for the CIF State Cross Country Championships with a second-place finish at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 2 meet on Saturday. It is the fifth consecutive state appearance for the Troubadours, who have finished among the Top 10 in the each of the last four seasons.

Sophomore Sydney Vandegrift crossed the third overall in 18:53 to lead St. Francis.

‘It felt great and the team did very well,” said Vandegrift. “I am really excited about qualifying for the state championships. Chase really stepped up and AA (Ariane Arndt) and Sophie. Everyone pulled through to go to state.”

Senior Chase Worthen was ninth overall with a time of 19:07, while classmate Arndt was 10th in 19:26. Freshman Sophie DeBenedetti was 18th overall in 20:05. She was the fourth-fastest freshman in the field.

Junior Allie Lourim was the fifth scorer for the team, running the course in 20:59. Alana Reyna (21:42) and Gabrielle Dyer (22:17) were also part of the qualifying team.

“It feels awesome,” said Lourim. “I am so thankful for such a strong, amazing team. I was really happy we could step up today.”

The JV team finished fifth overall behind senior Jessica Danen’s second-place finish in 21:02.

“It felt good especially since it is my last race,” said Danens. “We did really good this whole year and we all pushed ourselves.”

Juliet Batturaro was 23rd (23:35) and Alanna Appel finished 25tg (23:35). Seniors Isabella Saca (28th, 23:56) and Sophie Huang (37th, 25:07) also performed well for the Troubadours. Isabela Garcia and Raegan Healey were 38th and 40th, respectively.

The Frosh/Soph team won the section with by placing four runners in the top 10 and cruising to a 33-point effort that won the meet by 39 points over their closest competitopr. Erica Cradeur was the top finisher in second in 14:14 followed by Teresa Lee in third in 14:17. Margaret Casale finished fifth (14:26) and Samantha Tran was seventh (14:32). Cassidy Lourim was the fifth scorer for the team in 16th and Morgan Watson and Savanna McGrew both recorded Top 25 finishes.