DHS underclassmen shine at section cross country meet

The Davis High cross country underclassmen ran to both outstanding individual and team performances as they wrapped up their seasons on Saturday in the Sac-Joaquin Section Championships on the Willow Hills course.

Of the 43 local underclassmen racing on Saturday, 38 of them recorded personal bests on the tough, hilly course. That kind of speed resulted in two first-place team finishes — by the Blue Devil frosh/soph girls and freshman boys — and second-place outings from the DHS junior varsity boys and girls. In addition, the Devil sophomore boys took third as Davis was the only Division I or II school to field teams in all seven categories.

Blue Devil Kellen Browning got things rolling by capturing an individual title in the opening race of the day, the freshman boys event. His time of 11:19 was a 13-second improvement on his time from the conference finals just two weeks earlier. Liam Mayr also had a huge race for DHS, placing second in 11:38, while Winston Tran (13th), Aidan Cox (18th), David Wilson (24th) Eric Smith, Tanner Johnston and Jacob Comingore backed up the 1-2 Devil finish with solid runs of their own.

Next, in the frosh/soph girls race, Claire Dicker overcame an early fall to finish third (13:15), just behind her Davis teammate Elisa McIsaac (second place in 13:14). Local freshmen Jasmine Casillas and Alex Diaz were the next finishers, joining sophomore Renee Shuman to finish 7-9 and assure the Blue Devils’ team win. Jeanne-Marie McPherson and Zoe Juanitas rounded out the scoring, while six other DHS runners — Elise Chu, Katherine Dimond, Adria Lammers, Sarah Sherwin, Julia Zabala and Emily Lufburrow — ran strongly as individuals.

The Davis JV boys and girls squads had some nice individual finishes with Pooja Tripathi topping that list with her first-place time of 20:07. Tripathi’s time was a personal best by 51 seconds and she finished 29 seconds ahead of the competition. Laurel Darragh also stepped up big for the Devils, taking seventh in 21:33, with Lauren James (12th), Isabel Leamon (18th), Victoria Mohtes-Chan (23rd), Michaela Joerger and Shauna Simon completing the local scoring. DHS’ Siena Cox ran well as an individual.

The sophomore boys race featured a battle for first place between Blue Devil runners Blake Croft and Charlie Harris. Croft eventually prevailed in 11:14, just five seconds ahead of Harris, while Justin McGrew (30th), Torin Halsted (36th), Zachary Moffatt (38th), Tyler Powell and Kian Tanner all posted strong performances for DHS.