SALINAS — St. Francis won the battles.
Monte Vista Christian won the war.
Sophomores Andrew Bachman and Justin Lomeli and junior David Wang continued their strong seasons, and the Mustangs received a boost from the back half of their scoring five to edge St. Francis, 35-43, for the Pacific Coast Athletic League Santa Lucia division crown in Saturday’s cross country finals at Toro Park.
“It was a team effort,” Bachman said. “We knew this week that we had to get it done in practice, and a lot of credit goes to our coaches. This was a team effort. There was no individual thing about this. We came together and we did it.”
St. Francis senior E.J. Kelly completed the 3-mile course in 17 minutes, and 17 seconds to win the division’s individual championship, and juniors Patrick McCarthy (3rd, 17:33) and Paul Kane (7th, 18:29) and freshman Julian Vargas (9th, 18:49) all placed inside the top 10.
But M.V.C.’s big three of Bachman (2nd, 17:26), Wang (4th, 17:38) and Lomeli (5th, 18:06) finished in the top five, and teammates Rafael Gomez (11th, 19:06) and Jordan Olhava (13th, 19:19) ran solid races to clinch the title.
“[The Mustangs] brought their ‘A’-game,” said St. Francis head coach Ramona Young. “They earned that championship today.”
St. Francis and M.V.C. had shared control of the PCAL-Santa Lucia over the season’s three center meets. The Mustangs won the first, but the Sharks ran away with back-to-back victories to close out the regular season.
M.V.C. won the meet that mattered most.
“I give a lot of props to Monte Vista,” Kelly said. “It’s been fun competing against them and some of the other teams in our league this year. It’s been a fun dynamic to lineup and say ‘hey, I know these guys are going to be out there working hard, and we have to work hard to put ourselves in a position to win.’”
Both teams will advance to the Central Coast Section Championships at Crystal Springs in Belmont on Nov. 10.
M.V.C. will compete in Division IV and St. Francis in D-V.
Kelly, a top-three finisher at the section meet in each of the last three seasons, figures to be in the running for the individual crown, and the Sharks, too, could find themselves near the top of the division in two weeks.
M.V.C. might have a tougher time in D-IV, but the Mustangs will try to carry some of Saturday’s momentum into their upcoming practices.
“We’re going to enjoy today, and Monday’s practice we’re going to focus on CCS,” Bachman said. “That’s our next target.”
Watsonville will join its neighboring schools at the section meet.
The Wildcatz finished second in the PCAL-Cypress behind Gonzales, 49-53, thanks to a gutsy performance from senior Jesus Alvarez, juniors Damian Rivas and Miguel Leon and freshman Sebastian Abonce.
Alvarez (6th, 17:55), Rivas (7th, 18:05), Leon (10th, 18:14) and Abonce (11th, 18:15) gave Watsonville a chance, but Gonzales’s fifth and six runners finished before the Wildcatz could secure a score.
The runner-up finish was a surprise considering Leon, the Wildcatz’s top runner, was fighting through a back injury.
“I give [Leon] credit, he ran a real good race considering, but he just didn’t have it in him,” Cornett said. “We were crossing our fingers that he would be pain free, but we knew the reality was that he probably wasn’t going to be.”
North Monterey County finished sixth in the Gabilan division, but qualified for CCS as the division’s D-III representative.
Senior Giovanni Garcia led the Condors in 15th (17:26).
