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Turlock boys XC team qualifies for state meet
Hilmar's Logsdon also punches ticket to state
Turlock boys XC
Turlock’s Logan Petty, with an 11th place finish at the Sac-Joaquin Section cross country meet at Willow Hill Cross Country Course in Folsom on Saturday, helped his Bulldogs earn a third place team finish and a berth to the California State Championships on Nov. 25 at Woodward Park in Fresno (Photo by StanCo Distance).

The Turlock High varsity boys cross country team of Logan Petty, Theodore Santos, Daniel Zaragoza, Behniya Esmaeilabadi, Jackson Hall, Angel Solis De La Cruz, Ryan Arias, Julian Hernandez and Diego Perez aren’t ready to stop running.

At Saturday’s CIF Sac-Joaquin Section meet at Willow Hill Cross Country Course in Folsom, the pack of Bulldogs put up a score of 84 in the Division I race to clinch third place and berth to the California State Championships on Nov. 25 at Woodward Park in Fresno. They will be joined by Hilmar’s Sidney Logsdon, who qualified in the girls' Division IV race.

Turlock’s boys, this year’s Central California Athletic League champions, had three of their runners finish in the top 15 of their 5,000 meter race of 86 competitors. Petty finished in 11th place with a time of 17:05.3. Santos finished right behind — or beside — Petty with a time of 17:05.5. Meanwhile, Zaragoza’s time of 17:13.8 was good for 15th position.

Impressive times were also put in during the girls’ Division IV race of 75 runners by the Hilmar duo of Logsdon and Lopes. Despite the Yellowjackets’ missing out on a team berth to the state meet with a sixth place finish out of 11 teams, Logsdon ran a fifth place time of 20:39.4, while Lopes logged a 12th place time of 21:34.9.

The same story unfolded for Mendonca and the Yellowjackets’ boys team in their D-4 race, which featured 76 runners. As a team, they were eliminated from state contention after placing seventh, but Mendonca’s time of 17:08.6 was good enough to secure seventh position. Similarly, Hughson finished in ninth place as a team, but saw a stellar showing from Nieto, who had a 16th place finish with a time of 17:46.9.

Over in the Division I girls race of 77 runners, there were no area teams that qualified to the state meet, though the yearlong rivalry between Turlock and Pitman remained strong. Of the two schools, the Bulldogs had the fastest runner of the day in Maya Day, who placed 11th with a time of 20:20.5. Unfortunately for Day, the cutoff for the Division I races to qualify to state was eighth place. And unfortunately for the Bulldogs, she was the outlier of the team as they fell behind the Pride in the final team standings. Pitman clinched fifth place as a team with 142 points while the Bulldogs were left in sixth with 159 points as the Pride’s Avery Carlson (20:21.4 for 14th), Aubrey Lascano (21:54.3 for 34th), Nayeli Mattison (21:55.6 for 35th) and Emerson Newton (22:04.2 for 37th) finished ahead of Turlock’s second-fastest runner, Lila Brackett in 41st place with a time of 22:20.9.

The Nov. 25 state meet is expected to kick off at 8:30 a.m. For more information on tickets, parking, the track and more, head to www.cifstate.org/sports/cross_country/index.