WALNUT — Halfway through the Mt. SAC Girls Individual Sweepstakes cross country race Saturday, Canyon Crest Academy’s Katja Dunayevich was so far behind Temescal Canyon’s Megan Crum that there were times she lost sight of her.
But Dunayevich very slowly closed the gap. Just before the final hill she heard her coach, Andrew Corman, shouting to her.
“He told me I could win it,” the Ravens senior said.
Dunayevich scorched the final 300 meters on the track. She caught Crum with 100 meters remaining and clocked a winning time of 17 minutes, 39 seconds for Division 1-2 runners over the hilly 3-mile course.
“I thought to myself, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and my adrenaline really started pumping,” she said. “When I got near the Jumbotron scoreboard, I could see I was catching up, and then I just ran as fast as I could. Earlier in the race I resisted the urge to use my energy to catch up, saving it for the end.
“But once I hit the downhill off (the final hill), I took off. My goal coming in was a top-five finish. This is a huge boost for my confidence. Both this meet and the state meet didn’t go well for me last year, but this year is different.”
She won by 2 seconds.
It was also a big day for Rancho Bernardo’s Camden Luecht, who finished second in the Division 1-2 Individual Sweepstakes. Luecht pushed the pace from the very start but couldn’t hold off Lancaster’s Isaiah McCorvey over the final half-mile.
“I planned to sit on a runner from (Whittier) La Serna, but once we started I knew he wasn’t in the race,” said Luecht, who ran 15:20. “When we started down the switchbacks, I decided to push it to see if I could break away because my coach has been emphasizing how to run downhill all week.
“At the bottom of the hill (about 1.5 miles into the race), I could tell there were only three of us with a chance to win. …
“Once we got on the track, my legs felt very heavy but I wasn’t going to lose second place after all that work. Since my realistic goal was a top-three finish, I’m very pleased.”
Luecht was asked if he had a time goal coming into the race.
“No. With all the changes they made to the course, I really wasn’t thinking time,” he said. “You usually don’t once the race starts anyway.”
Elsewhere, the Del Norte girls found themselves right in the thick of the team race until the final mile when Mountain View St. Francis finished strong to win the D1-2 Team Sweepstakes 69-105 over the Nighthawks.
“Our No. 6 runner had to drop out of running here with an injury,” said Emily Russo (18:20), who led a 4-5 Del Norte finish with Eliza Hong (18:27). “We’re hopeful of doing well at state, though.”
Since it was a new course, records tumbled everywhere.
La Jolla’s Chiara Dailey finished second to South Pasadena’s Abigail Errington (16:57) on Friday. Dailey’s time of 17:06 was the second-fastest of the entire weekend.
Concord De La Salle’s Trey Caldwell set the boys record, clocking a 14:46 time. He was the only runner to finish in under 15 minutes.
The meet itself has almost 100 different races. For runners like Torrey Pines’ Luka Trevino, it was an eye-opening experience.
Trevino competed in one of the freshman races early in the day, winning in 16:48.
“I’ve been running since the sixth grade and competing here was really fun, different,” said Trevino. “There is so much energy here. I like running the hills because I think that’s real cross country. This was some new scenery and it’s so competitive.
“For me, though, I don’t like running in circles (on the track) and the longer the race, the better. I really like the switchbacks here and the fact you had no idea what was up next.”
