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Expectations high for county teams
FRESNO, Nov 28, 2009 (San Bernardino County Sun - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The Southern Section by far is the strongest section in the state for cross country, so the teams qualifying for today's CIF State Championships from San Bernardino County certainly are confident in their chances.
Most feel they can do even better than their place at last Saturday's CIF-SS Finals.
But it might not be as easy as they think.
The top-ranked team in the county, the Yucaipa boys, finished fifth at CIF-SS Finals and is ranked No. 6 in Division 1 entering the state meet. Yucaipa is ranked behind the four schools it trailed last week plus Clovis Buchanan, which regularly runs on the Woodward Park course.
"We'd like to be top seven," Yucaipa junior Tyler Dutchover said. "But our ultimate goal is fourth."
That doesn't seem too crazy, since the top four teams in the Southern Section were separated by 13 points and Yucaipa was 72 points out of first.
Rancho Cucamonga, which finished one spot behind Yucaipa last week, is ranked ninth in the division.
Granite Hills boys, with its best team ever, finished fourth in Division 3 last week.
"We finished fourth (at finals). Why not finish fourth at state?" Granite Hills coach Jim McManus said.
The top individuals from the county in that race, however, should be Apple Valley senior Daniel Rosales and Rim of the World senior Dustin Fay. It will be the last CIF race for these two Mojave River League competitors. Last year, they also qualified
for state as individuals, with Rosales taking third in state and Fay taking sixth.
Big Bear is the defending state Division 4 boys champion and impressed in taking second at finals last week, but Big Bear is fourth entering state behind Southern Section champion Laguna Beach and Central Section power McFarland, which have been ranked nos. 1 and 2 in the state all year.
Aquinas girls qualified in Division 5 and is the first team from the school to qualify for state.
"This is really cool for them," Aquinas coach Ron Perez said. "We beat the No. 8 and No. 9 teams in the state, Woodcrest Christian and Desert Christian, last week so we have a good shot for the top 10."
It's all worked out well for Aquinas, which has come a long way from a program that struggled to field a whole team in recent years.
Other sections, of course, are strong in Division 5 and Aquinas is not ranked in the top 10 entering the meet.
pete.marshall@inlandnewspapers.com
(909) 483-9364
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