Jags finish unbeaten cross-country season with win in Valley League finals

The Valley Center varsity boys cross-country team continued its season-long winning streak, taking first place in the Valley League finals on Saturday.
This concluded an undefeated regular season for the Jaguars, as they earned their fifth league championship.
Senior runner Nicasio Westlund completed his own undefeated season to win the Valley League’s individual championship:
At league finals, the Jaguars competed against San Dieguito, Canyon Crest, Del Norte, and Orange Glen high schools. The race started at a fast pace as a group of runners completed the first mile in 4:52. The race then entered the back part of the course, and the Jaguars kept the pace up.
Westlund and Nick Vanderpool:
...took the top two positions and started to pull away, building a lead. Stephen Lopez:
...Travis Robey, Jon Larson, and Daniel Henderson were in the group following the two lead runners. Genaro Rodriguez, Logan Fidler, Alex Sanchez, Kyle Ryan, and Daniel Caballero were in the third pack of runners.
As the runners came out of the back portion of the course, Westlund was in the lead position and finished at 16:45, followed by Vanderpool who finished at 17:05.
Six Jaguars earned first-team honors and three more earned second-team honors with their outstanding finishes.
Valley Center’s top five runners took positions one, two, four, seven and nine, earning 23 points. San Dieguito had 62 points for second place, Canyon Crest was third with 72 points, Del Norte scored 93 points for fourth and Orange Glen took fifth with 137 points.
Valley Center Jaguars placed six runners in the top ten positions and nine of the top 20 positions.
For the girls, Bama Velazquez raced well, placing ninth:
...and Dani Lettice placed eleventh:
Velasquez earned first-team honors and Lettice earned second-team honors.
The boys have trained hard and have been racing well. Next up, the Jaguars will run in the CIF finals at Morley field on Saturday. The boys race is at 8:30 a.m. and the girls race starts at 9:30 a.m.
Photos by Gabriel Santana