ARC men capture third straight state title
4.00 miles
Woodward Park, Fresno, CA
The top ranked ARC men's team entered the meet with high hopes of attaining a third straight state title in men's cross country at Woodward Park Saturday. The gun sounded and off they went. About a hundred meters into the race there was a massive pileup and down went undefeated ARC sophomore sensation Will Reyes and sophomore Luis Luna, as well as Chris Kigar, Jacob Huston, Sean Jagerson and Patrick Jagerson. The Beavers were way behind early, with their top 6 runners all on the ground and well back. Reyes emerged from the pile with a bloody lip and injured collar bone, Luna with a sore leg and the rest no worse for wear, but well behind the field. The defending champs showed poise and slowly chipped away to get back in the race, except Reyes, who hit the gas and ran to lead the field through the first mile in 4:52, even after being on the ground. Luna and the others held back and kept chipping away. At 3 miles Reyes was still leading and Luna was up to 12th but coming on strong. As they disappeared into the trees on the last mile the race was heating up. They popped out of the trees with 600 meters to go with Steve Martinez of San Diego Mesa in the lead, Luna back 50 meters, and Reyes back another 50 meters and fading. Luna started an impressive kick and caught Martinez from behind with 150 meters to go became ARC's third straight individual champion, beating Martinez 19:58 to 20:01. Reyes, out of gas from such a hard charge to the front, faded to 4th in 20:20. Sea Jagerson was next for the Beavers in 18th at 20:51. Chris Kigar was not far behind, and was running step for step with ARC's Jacob Huston. As they approached the finish line Kigar pulled away and finished in 22nd at 20:59. Now it came down to crunch time. Orange Coast of Costa Mesa, already had their top 4 runners in. Jacob Huston of ARC was well in front of the OCC #5 runner and just a few meters from the finish line and down he went. His second time on the ground in the meet, and this time just 3 meters from the finish line. He had just enough energy to crawl across the finish line in 27th place in a time of 21:05. Patrick Jagerson and Brennan Holman rounded out the top 7 for the Beavers in 46th and 50th places in times of 21:20 and 21:23 respectively.
The Beavers bounced back from a brutal start to capture their third straight state title, and 4th since 2005 with a score of 72 points, beating 2nd place OCC's total of 93 points. State #2 ranked San Bernardino Valley College, the state champions from 2006-2010, finished third after their top runner pulled out of the race with just over a mile to go. Luis Luna became the third straight individual champion for the Beavers, matching the feats of 2012 champion Matt Airola (now at Univ of Alabama) and 2011 champion and course record holder Garrett Seawell (now at Arizona State University).