By Danny Kelleher
Sports Editor
Although cross country is about pacing oneself, it seems that the Mira Costa girls cross country team sprinted throughout the last month with senior Savannah Pio leading the charge, eventually ending with a 14th-place finish at nationals in Portland, Oregon and a state championship for Pio.
Before the girls began CIF playoffs, they had a successful Bay League season that ended in a come-from-behind first-place finish, beating rival Redondo.
“I knew in advance that Redondo would be very good this year and that it was not going to be easy,” coach Renee Williams-Smith said.
Williams-Smith took necessary precautions in order to secure the Bay League crown.
“I changed the workout program this year before the season,” Williams-Smith said. “It was a risk that was very calculated.”
After Bay League was out of the way, they moved on to the CIF preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College, where they achieved a first-place finish led by Pio and junior Kelli Sugimoto, who finished in first and second place, respectively.
“I’ve run the Mt. SAC course 11 times; I know it pretty well,” Pio said.
After that, they traveled back to Mt. SAC for CIF finals, where they ran in the rain. There were only three teams in the race: Redondo, Costa, and Saugus. Saugus, a top-five finisher for the last five years, took home the first-place finish, and the Mustangs narrowly beat the Seahawks.
“I do not think that the course was an issue in the race. We would have succeeded regardless of the place where we ran,” Pio said.
The victory over Redondo allowed the team to make the trip to the state championship in Fresno at the Woodward Park course, where it once again came in second to Saugus, earning a spot in Nike Nationals for cross country.
The team’s time was the third-best time ever to be recorded at the state championship. Pio finished first in the Division II race and was crowned the Division II state champion.
“I was very focused throughout the whole Fresno race. It all came down to who wanted it more,” Pio said.
However, when the team got to Portland for the national race, Costa’s normal finishing order changed. Junior Kelli Sugimoto placed first for the team and 62nd overall with a time of 20:11, a half-step ahead of Pio who finished 63rd. Senior Aryn Foland finished in third for the team, but came in 199th overall. This was Sugimoto’s second straight top finish for the Mustangs at nationals.
“Finishing in first place was not that big of a deal for me,” Sugimoto said. “Savannah and I were right next to each other so I really do not think that mattered. Obviously, though, the conditions were not what any of us expected, with it so muddy and cold, and we were a little disappointed with our finish.”
The Mustangs are now looking ahead to next season, when three of its top five runners will have graduated, and they will be assisting younger runners to improve.
“The rebuilding process will not be easy next year, but I think Renee has the ability to keep coming back with good teams,” Pio said.
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