A new year in Ventura County high school cross country brought two new, but not unfamiliar champions.
Westlake High sophomore Sabina Cruz and Foothill Tech senior Viggo Bortolin, the runners-up at last year’s Ventura County Cross Country Championships, each won their first county titles on Saturday, Oct. 17, at Lake Casitas.
“Today my No. 1 goal was just to win it,” Cruz said. “The competition was great and I got the win. I am happy.”
It was a wire-to-wire victory for Cruz, who surged into the lead from the gun and built a sizable lead on the rest of the field in the opening moments of the race.
Competing without her co-star and twin sister Anais, who missed the race with a nagging injury, Cruz was forced to hammer away alone from start to finish
to win the title in 17 minutes, 57.2 seconds.
“It was pretty hard. I have never really been up front at the very start before and without my sister,” Cruz said. “It was a little difficult in the last mile to push myself.”
Bortolin’s winning surge came later, near the two-mile mark, but it had a similar effect.
The senior found open space near the front of a crowded lead pack and slowly stretched the race out, winning comfortably in 15:15.1.
“I was like, ‘Alright, now would definitely be the time to make sure I get a little gap,’ ” Bortolin said. “There wasn’t necessarily a moment where I was like, I have got to surge, but I found myself in a spot where I am alone — might as well make sure I stay alone for the rest of this race.”
Foothill Tech was the only boys team to put three runners in the top 10 of the race, with senior Camden Taylor placing sixth in 15:38.4 and junior Asher Field running 15:49.8 to finish ninth, but it was Ventura’s depth that secured the team title for the Cougars.
Ventura (65 points) edged out Oak Park (71) for first place, with Westlake placing third (97) and Foothill Tech finishing fourth (132).
Junior Jesus Martinez led Ventura to the team victory, running 15:26 to finish third behind runner-up Rio Zimmermann of Westlake, who ran 15:23.6.
Ventura freshman Jacob Nuckols, coming off the fifth-fastest freshman time in Woodward Park history at the Clovis Invitational a week ago, continued his breakout fall with a fifth-place finish in 15:30.1 behind Oak Park low stick Ari Kalan in fourth place (15:27).
“Very mature race for Jake,” Ventura head coach Aaron Torres said. “He almost acts like a seasoned vet, even though he is just a freshman.”
The Cougars put all five scorers among the top 24 finishers, with Noah Fong (11th, 15:57.9), Ezekiel Torres (22nd, 16:32.3) and Henry Hampton (24th, 16:39.2) rounding out Ventura’s scoring punch.
Torres said the Cougars wanted to honor their winning tradition at the county championships, dating back to his own high school racing days, with another big day this year. The program swept the individual titles with Aelo Curtis and Noah Sloan last year.
“We wanted to make a statement out here at county,” Torres said. “We wanted to get out on the course and see what we were made of.”
The Oak Park girls team rode its momentum from a win at the Clovis Invitational into the county championships, securing the team title for the third consecutive season with 41 points.
Westlake was second with 70 points, Ventura was close behind in third with 77 and Moorpark placed fourth with 100.
Senior Sophia Perez led the Eagles again, racing to her fastest time on the Lake Casitas course in 18:23.7 to place third. Sophomores Áine Pitillo (4th, 18:37.1) and Christina Smith 9th, 18:55.6) were the No. 2 and No. 3 runners for Oak Park. Junior Tabitha Brown was 10th in 18:58.4 and freshman Addison Hu was 18th in 19:39.7.
Oak Park won the title without sophomore star Kathleen Lambe, who was third at the meet last year.
Moorpark was buoyed by big performances from the senior tandem of Jenna Murray and Caylie Wight. Murray took second in the girls race with a time of 18:13 and Wight was sixth in 18:41.
Dominic Massimino covers cross country for The Star. He can be reached at dominic.massimino@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: New champions emerge at Ventura County cross country championships
