DAILEY RUNS OFF WITH CIF CROSS COUNTRY TITLE AGAIN

When La Jolla’s Chiara Dailey showed up for the final race of the day in the section cross country championships at Morley Field, she had just one question.

“What was the fastest girls’ time of the day?” she asked.

Informed that before it got too warm, Eastlake sophomore Jaelyn Williams had covered the hilly 3-mile course in 17 minutes, 6.4 seconds, Dailey now had a goal.

“I wanted the fastest time of the day and I wanted to break 17 minutes,” said Dailey, also a sophomore.

Done and done. She roared to a time of 16:57.7 to capture the Division IV title by better than 80 seconds in the final of 10 races to determine boys and girls champions and qualifiers for state.

Ranked the No. 14 girls cross country runner in the nation, Dailey sprinted the first 100 meters and never was threatened as she bettered Williams’ split times at the mile (5:20 to 5:27) and 2mile (11:28 to 11:41) marks in preparation for the state meet in two weeks in Fresno.

Dailey defended her section title. She ran 17:14.6 a year ago before finishing second in the state.

“It’s difficult to motivate yourself when you’re running all alone,” said Dailey, who was a Footlocker National All-american a year ago. “I’ll taper my workouts and it’ll be great to have someone running with me.”

Actually, Williams didn’t have anyone close by in the most anticipated race of the day, the Division I girls. She was expected to get a push from the likes of defending state champion Tessa Buswell of Poway and Palomar League champion Kaitlyn Arciaga of Westview, but that 5:27 mile left the potential challengers well behind.

“I’ve been working on my distance training,” said Williams, who beat Buswell by 48 seconds and Arciaga by almost a minute. “The next two weeks I’ll work on my speed.”

That race also featured a heated battle for the first two state team berths with Del Norte edging league rival Poway 57-69 (low score wins) with Torrey Pines grabbing the third state team spot with 114 points.

With fifth-place Emily Russo leading the way, Del Norte placed four runners in the top 15 and then showed its depth by grabbing 22nd and 23rd.

Elsewhere, La Costa Canyon’s Gioana Lopizzo defended her Division III title with the third-fastest time of the day, winning by 24 seconds at 17:29.3.

“It just felt good to compete again,” said Lopizzo, who last week signed to attend the University of Colorado. “I’ve been injured and this was a great chance to prove myself. I’m just grateful to be able to compete.”

The other girls returning champion, Bishop’s Ayanna Hickey, was beaten by 10 seconds by Coastal League rival Ari Llorens of Francis Parker, who ran 18:10.1 to lead the Lancers to a 1-3-5-6-7-8 finish in Division V.

On the boys’ front, El Camino’s Omar Reyes roared to the Division I title in 14:47.4, edging Westview’s Adrian Welton by seven seconds.

“I was listening to the announcer (Don Jones) and the crowd, so I knew (Welton) was moving up,” said Reyes. “When he got right behind me I made a little move and he couldn’t match it.”

The lone boys’ returning champion, High Tech High

San Diego’s Kai Lange-dei, romped in the Division IV championship, bettering the 16:10.9 he ran a year ago to win by almost a minute in 15:32.2.

Francis Parker’s York Bourgeois, who is now on his sixth coach in four years, captured the Division V title where he placed seventh in the state a year ago.

“I’ve tried a lot of different things, but nothing seemed to work,” said the senior, who was timed in 15:11.8. “There was a lot of uncertainty until last week’s league meet where I was 95 to 100 percent confident. Today I was closer to 90 percent and hope to be back to 100 percent in two weeks.”