FRESNO — Mountain View's cross-country teams have come so far so fast that third- and fourth-place team finishes in Saturday's CIF State Championships at Woodward Park were somewhat bittersweet.
Both teams came in ranked No. 2 in Division II and the boys, fighting off some nagging injuries, were no match for SoCal powers Loyola-Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks.
Mountain View, led by a superb runner-up finish by Garrett Rowe, was a distant third at 161.
"We needed to be at full strength to beat those nationally-ranked teams," Mountain View coach Evan Smith said. "Considering our condition, we ran about as well as we could. I'm very proud of them."
Especially Rowe, who recorded the day's second-best time over the rolling 3.1-mile course in 15 minutes, 3 seconds. He held a slim lead with about a quarter-mile to go but Loyola's ultra-talented Elias Gedyon passed him with 300 to go to win in 15:01.
The Spartans also got fine efforts Saturday from sophomores Parker Schuh (15:38) and Bryan Crook (16:20) and junior Ian Myjer (16:25).
Mountain View's girls just missed out on third place.
Seniors Mary Reynolds (18:26) and Alex Westbrook (18:44) led the charge for the Spartans, but they were the only two to crack 19:00. They've led the Spartans to two straight Central Coast Section titles.
Valley Christian's Jennifer Bergman (17:46) finished off a stellar career by placing third in the D-III race.