FRESNO, Calif. — Senior Tatiana Cornejo placed fifth overall and tops among her St. Francis teammates, leading the Troubadours to an eighth-place finish in the girls' Division II 5-kilometer race at the CIF State Cross Country Championships, held at Woodward Park Saturday.
Cornejo crossed the finish line with a time of 17 minutes, 54.6 seconds as one of two Sac-Joaquin Section runners to place among the top 10. Whitney High junior Katie Kopec entered the chute in seventh at 17:57.3. As a team, St. Francis finished second among SJS squads, with section champ Granite Bay taking third overall with 149 points.
Cornejo's fifth was also three places better than her "seed" entering the race, while the Troubies headed into the meet rated 11th among the 23-team field. Senior Claire Silva crossed in 37th place at 18:59.2, 28th among the scorers; while sophomore Kelsey Sutch took 42nd overall, 32nd among scoring finishers (19:06.6).
Junior Daphne Witherell (90th) and Grace Dunham (109th) rounded out the SFHS scorers, with sophomore Ryann Strawn displacing in 118th. The Troubies suffered some bad luck when senior standout Cate Joaquin suffered a fall in the final mile of the course and was unable to finish. Joaquin, a fall National Letter of Intent signee with Georgetown, remains one of St. Francis High's great distance runners. She placed fourth in this very meet two years prior and entered the weekend as the state's No. 9 runner in D-II.
Mira Costa dominated the team standings for the girls' D-II championship, with senior and future Duke Blue Devil Dalia Frias claiming the individual crown at 16:52.0.
2021 CIF STATE CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Woodward Park (Fresno, Calif.) • St. Francis High results only
D-II GIRLS TEAM SCORES - 1. Mira Costa, 86; 2. Canyon (Anaheim), 123; 3. Granite Bay, 149; 4. St. Francis (Mountain View), 188; 5. Poway, 194; 6. Granada, 195; 7. Dana Hills, 216; 8. St. Francis (Sacramento), 220; 9. Snager, 234; 10. Claremont, 259; 11. Monte Vista, 284; 12. Redwood, 284; 13. Westltake, 319; 14. El Toro, 357; 15. Rio Americano, 372; 16. Willow Glen, 375; 17. Ventura, 384; 18. San Ramon Valley, 450; 19. Mt. Carmel, 465; 20. Archbishop Mitty, 485; 21. Scripps Ranch, 502; 22. Frontier, 603; 23. Eagle Rock, 647.
D-II GIRLS INDIVIDUALS (winner plus SFHS runners) - 1. Dalia Frias, Mira Costa, 16:52.0… 5. Tatiana Cornejo, 17:54.6; 37. Claire Silva, 18:59.2; 42. Kelsey Sutch, 19:06.6; 90. Daphne Witherell, 19:56.2; 109. Grace Dunham, 20:09.5; 118. Ryann Strawn, 20:14.1; Cate Joaquin, DNF.
EDIT: Ryann Strawn was incorrectly listed as Kayla Towne in the live results. The story has been corrected.
