Warrior girls 12th at CIF cross-country meet

Fallbrook High School's girls cross-country team placed 12th among the 17 Division II teams at the CIF San Diego Section meet Nov. 21 at Morley Field in San Diego.

"I was very proud of the way they ran. They gave it their all. The girls ran with a lot of heart," said Fallbrook head coach Troy Hamlin. "They put it on the line."

Team cross-country scores add the positions of a school's first five finishers. The sixth and seventh finishers are not scored but can add points to other teams' totals. Fallbrook accumulated 337 points at the CIF meet.

"Our girls didn't have a bad day," Hamlin said. "It's just that there's so much talent in Division II."

Westview won the Division II team championship with 52 points and Mount Carmel placed second with 57 points. The top three teams qualified for the state meet; Rancho Bernardo accumulated 91 points for the third and final state meet berth.

Although Natalie Dudley is a senior, she did not compete in last year's CIF meet due to a family commitment and made her CIF meet debut Nov. 21 as did freshmen Jessica Wilbert, Audrey Petersen, and Hannah Diverde. "For many this was a learning experience. We're a young team, including Natalie," Hamlin said. "The three freshmen, this was definitely a learning experience for them and they will come back stronger next year."

Fallbrook's runners also included sophomore Gisselle Rivera and seniors Andrea Vela and Hannah French.

Dudley was Fallbrook's first finisher and the 49th overall Division II girl to cross the finish line. She completed the 2.75-mile course in 19:15.08. Wilbert finished 62nd with a time of 19:43.07; Petersen took 63rd place after a 19:45.73 performance; Rivera posted a time of 20:35.97 for 81st place; Vela became the 82nd finisher 20:37.11 after the race began; Diverde had the 94th-place time of 21:09.18, and French was 101st among the 117 finishers and had a time of 21:41.55.

The times gave Fallbrook an 82-second spread between the Warriors' first five finishers. "That's really not too bad for a CIF situation," Hamlin said. "To run an 82-second spread is very solid, and hopefully they'll grow from there."

Running in a pack is simpler with smaller fields than at the CIF meet with more than 100 runners in each race, and teammates often become separated during the CIF meet. "One of the things we told them was to try to find their teammates, and I thought they did a very good job," Hamlin said.

The race began at 11:45 a.m. on a day which was hotter and drier than the previous days. "I think it had some effect on everybody. I don't think it had an effect on the outcome of the race, but it had an effect on the way the athletes performed," Hamlin said.

Last year, Fallbrook competed in the Division I race and finished 15th among the 18 teams with 431 team points. French had a time of 20:52.86 for 95th place, Rivera finished 108th at 21:23.69, and a time of 21:43.28 gave Vela 112th place.

"I could not be happier with what this team did this season," Hamlin said. "Maybe we didn't finish as high as we hoped, but I can't complain."

Fallbrook won its first girls cross-country league championship since 2002 and had five of the top nine finishers at the Valley League meet Nov. 14. "They did this as a group," Hamlin said. "This was a team that really ran together."

The boys and girls coaching staff members work together and the coaching team includes boys head coach Marco Arias and assistant coaches Lisa Hasvold, Bret Hasvold, and Enrique Rivera. "It was a team effort," Hamlin said. "We all played our role."

The team finish at this year's CIF meet was the best for the Warriors since Fallbrook placed eighth in 2011, and the 2015 section meet was also the first since 2011 that Fallbrook's first five finishers were all among the 90 fastest runners.

"It's been an absolutely amazing season, and these kids have trained like no other team that we've had," Hamlin said.