Sonoma Academy’s Rylee Bowen wins state cross country title

FRESNO — To the faculty and administrators who taught Rylee Bowen at Austin Creek Elementary School in Santa Rosa and allowed her to be rambunctious with a free spirit, she thanks you with all her heart.

Bowen, now a 16-year-old sophomore at Sonoma Academy, won the California Interscholastic Federation Division 5 state girls country championship at Woodward Park in 18 minutes and 12.3 seconds on the 5,000-meter course to carry the flag for Redwood Empire. It was her second consecutive state championship.

'I really didn't want to go out and take the lead too fast,' said Bowen. 'I just really wanted to run with her (Kiera Marshall) it was nice to know the course.'

Marshall, whose St. Joseph Notre Dame team from Alameda finished second to Flintridge of La Canada for the team title, finished at 18:18.3 a six-second gap behind Bowen.

'I just wanted to stay close to Rylee, as close as I could,' said Marshall. 'We're similar (in their strides) running, I didn't really notice it, I just kicked as much as I could just to get a strong finish.'

Sophomore Iris Berto from Technology was 28th at 19.38.4.

Bowen and her coach, former Petaluma High runner Dan Aldridge, had a plan of at attack and it paid off.

'We just wanted her to follow her,' said Aldridge in referring to Marshall. 'Rylee ran a strong pace (4:43 mile) and when it was time she made a strong kick.'

Bowen and Marshall were all alone after the 2-mile mark at the start of the uphill climb running shoulder to shoulder.

'I just wanted to forget about it,' added Bowen in reference to the hill. 'I didn't think about it and just wanted to be consistent and when it was time to go down (the hill) I started kicking.'

With 900 meters to go Bowen took off and was left running alone before a crowd of 15,000 fans cherring her on.

In girls Division 1, Delaney White of Santa Rosa took 12th in 17:50.4. While missing the medal awards by two places, she was in a race that provided a new CIF girls record.

Destiny Collins of Great Oak won in a record time of 17:09.

White's time placed her third best all-time by a Redwood Empire runner at the CIF meet. Julia Stamps leads the list at 16:43 (1996) followed by Trina Cox at 17:46 ('97). Those times were winning marks.

'I'm just happy with my finish,' said White. 'It was tightly packed at the start, I felt strong passing people on the downhill and I had established myself in the top 15.'

In the Division III race, Cynthia Rosales of Piner was 51st at 18:57.

'She ran a personal best,' said coach Luis Rosales. 'Now she knows what to do to get better.'

Brian Schultz of El Molino led the Redwood Empire boys with a seventh place medal finish in Division 4 at 15:38.7.

'The first couple of years here was frustrating,' said Schultz, who ran the first mile at 5:48. 'This time I eased into it, started passing people and I had more left in the tank as I headed for home That was my hope (top 10).'

Santa Rosa's Daniel Pride was 42nd in 15:52.1 and Lucca Mazzanti 105th at 16:28.3 in Division 1.

In the Division 3 boys race, Piner finished 16th out of 23 schools. Piner runners were Jonny Vargas at 16:28.1; Eduardo Calderon and Nathan Hayes both in at 17:00.8; Jacob Hayes (17.20.1), Brian Luong (17:36.4).

Sonoma Valley's Travis Claey was in that race and finished at 16:19.2.

Maria Carrillo was 17th with out of 23 schools in Boys Division 3. Maria Carrillo's runners were Carson Kimball at 16:01.2; Jordan Scobey (16:24.1); Jacob Wright (16:50.2); Ben Lawson (17:03.4), and Blake Civello (17:18.4).