SILVERADO – Autumn continues to be the season of Summer Wilson.
Wilson, a junior at Irvine High, won the girls sweepstakes race Saturday in the Orange County Cross Country Championships at Oak Canyon. Since sitting out the first half of the season after transferring to Irvine from JSerra, Wilson has finished first in the Central Park Invitational in Huntington Beach and, last week, third in the Clovis Invitational that was run at Fresno’s Woodward Park where the CIF State Championships will be held.
She covered the three-mile course through dust kicked up by Santa Ana winds in 16 minutes and 22 seconds in Saturday’s elite girls competition.
Trabuco Hills won the girls sweepstakes championship. The Mustangs finished with 32 points to second-place JSerra’s 80 points. El Toro was third at 92 points.
“I wasn’t really going for a good time today because of the crazy wind,” Wilson said. “So my plan was to stick behind whoever was in front to block the wind and then kick it at the end.”
Trabuco Hills junior Millie Bayles was Wilson’s main competitor in the race. Bayles, having an outstanding season for the Mustangs, finished second at 16:24.8.
Mustangs senior Holly Barker, last year’s Orange County Cross Country Athlete of the Year, was third at 16:48.8. Barker’s results in the final weeks of this past spring’s track and field season were off by her high standards and she finished 31st in a national-level and loaded cross-country field at last month’s Woodbridge Classic. So Saturday’s race could be interpreted as something akin to a comeback.
Five of the top 14 girls sweepstakes finishers were Trabuco Hills runners, including junior Anna Desormeau who was seventh at 17:15.0.
Sophie Polay, a senior at JSerra, was the Lions top finisher. Her 17:34.5 put her in 10th place.
Tesoro senior Griffin Kushen kept his outstanding season going. Kushen won the boys sweepstakes race in 14:22.4 with a fiery kick to create space between himself and Woodbridge sophomore Aidan Antonio who was second in 14:35.40.
Kushen, who finished second in the Clovis Invitational last week, enjoyed the competition and the all-Orange County aspect of the meet as much as his victory.
“This is something not every county does,” he said. “It’s nice to come out and compete against people I know and people I’ve raced against. I love the vibes around here.”
For Kushen, who said he “caught a little something” of an illness early this week, and for others who ran Saturday the focus now is on league finals meets and CIF Southern Section and CIF State competition that follows.
“Huge times aren’t the priority today,” Kushen said. “It’s just to get prepared for CIF, state finals and all of that.”
JSerra won the boys sweepstakes championship by a large margin. Taye Newman, a senior, led the Lions with his fourth-place finish of 14:44.9. JSerra senior Bradley Arrey finished sixth at 14:51.5.
The Lions, who did not have one of their better runners, Aiden Morales, in the field, finished with 78 points. Trabuco Hills was second at 127 points, Sam Clemente and Tesoro tied for third at 149.
Dana Hills senior Evan Noonan, last year’s county boys cross country athlete of the year, did not compete in the Orange County Championships. Dana Hills coach Craig Dunn said skipping Saturday’s meet was in Noonan’s season plan which now moves on to South Coast League finals Nov. 7.
Beckman’s boys team, so impressive last week in winning the Clovis Invitational team championship, did not have its “A group” of athletes in the sweepstakes race at Oak Canyon Park.
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