Chiara Dailey defends state cross country title in dominant fashion

FRESNO — When La Jolla’s Chiara Dailey wants to make a statement, look out.

Jumping into the lead from the start, the Vikings junior ran a time of 16 minutes, 44.9 seconds, winning by a whopping 49 seconds, to defend her Division 4 title in the State Cross Country Championships Saturday at Woodward Park’s 3-mile course.

“Nobody (previewing the meet) gave me any credit, so I wanted to run the fastest time in the state to show I belonged,” she said. “All I wanted was something faster than 17:46.5 (the winning time by Corona Santiago’s Rylee Blade in Division 1). Doing it all by myself was difficult. If I had Rylee, Sadie (Engelhardt) and Holly (Barker), it would have been easier.”

Blade, Ventura’s Engelhardt (the Division 2 champion) and Trabuco Hills’ Barker (second in Division 1) are all veteran runners who might have been able to stay with Dailey, at least early. But Dailey led her race by 14 seconds at the mile, opened it up to 37 seconds after 2 miles and finished 49.3 seconds ahead of JSerra’s Chloe Elbaz in second. That was the biggest margin all day — boys or girls.

“I went for it,” said Dailey, who won the section title two weeks ago despite being ill. “Now, I want to do it again at the Foot Locker West Regionals next week (at Mt. SAC) and the Nationals (in San Diego) the week after that.

“Being the fastest in California meant a lot to me.”

Dailey was the lone section individual champion, but the Point Loma girls made a statement by finishing second in the Division 3 team championships.

That division appeared to belong to defending state champion Cathedral Catholic until Dons runners suffered a freak injury and illness two weeks ago.

Point Loma took full advantage to capture the section title and made its own statement by placing second to heavily favored South Pasadena, 106-149 (low score wins).

“I’m really, really ecstatic, thrilled,” said Pointers coach Keith DeLong. “We’re the epitome of a team. They even had their nails done together for this meet.”

Kelly McIntire (20th in 18:39.2) and Paige Eudy (30th in 18:59.3) in close pursuit. Juniors Sara Geiszler (36th in 19:03.8) and Nicole Witt (47th in 19:14.7) rounded out the five scorers.

Cathedral Catholic still managed a fourth-place team finish. Jocelyn Gibson finished sixth in 17:40.0.

“It’s crazy because this is the first time I‘ve really run this course,” said Gibson, who was the Dons’ No. 8 runner a year ago and only seven can start the race. “Before the hill I passed a couple girls and at the end  I held off two others.”

Elsewhere, the Del Norte girls placed fourth as a team in Division 1, matching the school-best finish of two years ago.

“This team is better,” said coach Chris Jacobs. “Every girl got a personal best.”

Sophomore Eliza Hong led the way for Del Norte, placing 20th overall in 17:50.6 in a race that saw Canyon Crest Academy’s Katja Dunayevich finish ninth (17:33.3), Patrick Henry’s Hannah Aguirre 16th (17:44.4) and Eastlake’s Jaelyn Williams 24th (17:54.2).

The numbers support Jacobs’ contention as this year’s team combined to run 1:32:33, which was two minutes faster than the 2022 group which ran 1:34.35. This team would have placed second in that 2022 race.

Poway’s Cooper Castleberry and Rancho Bernardo’s Camden Luecht continued their back-and-forth battle as Castleberry finished 11th in the Division 1 boys race at 15:21.1. Luecht placed 13th just over four seconds later.

The top 10 finishers are considered first-team all-state, with the Nos. 11-20 finishers are second-teamers.