Sports

Lawson, Rogers Pace Drake Runners at State Championships

Lawson takes fifth in Division IV boys race in which Tam runner places first and San Rafael claims team title.

Marin proved its dominance in running again at Saturday's California Interscholastic Federation Cross Country Meet. Along with two individual titles (from Marin Academy's Lucy McCullough and Tam's Dan Milechman) and San Rafael's historic state title in the Division IV race, Marin fielded a number of teams at Fresno's Woodward Park, including impressive performances from both the boys and girls Drake teams.

Sophomore John Lawson of Drake placed fifth in the Division IV race and led the Pirates to a ninth place finish in the state.

Lawson finished the five-kilometer course at Woodward Park in 15 minutes, 51 seconds, or 50 seconds behind Milechman. Lawson was two spots ahead of Trevor Ehlenbach, who led the victorious San Rafael team with his 15:52. (Milechman, Lawson, and Ehlenbach took first-second-third, respectively, at the Marin County Athletic League championship race and then at the North Coast Section Championship race.)

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Will Baker-Robinson took 51st for Drake in 16:46 and teammate Clayton Hutchins was 73rd in 17:00. The ninth place team, with a cumulative time of 1:24:17 and an average of 16:52 over the course, was rounded out by Carroll Oliver, Dylan Enos, Jesse Lee, and Cole Schwartz.

On the girls' side, the team was able to rally and come back from the late season loss of leading runner Ellie Ryan to win the North Coast Section Division IV race and take a 13th place at the state meet Saturday morning.

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Lindsay Rogers paced Drake with her 20:05, good for 59th place. Teammate Julia Saunders was 70th in 20:14.

The Pirates averaged 20:34 over the course with solid performances from Mackinzie Stanley, freshman Sarah Bates, Bianca Doerschlag, Summer Lawson, and Jahya Burke.

It is rare for a school to send both the boys and girls teams to the state meet. (Marin Academy also achieved this difficult feat this year.) It is also difficult for runners to perform well both week after week and also at the end of the long season at big races such as state. Typically, coaches choose to focus on either the dual meet season or the late post-season races. But both the Drake boys and girls teams were able to not only win the dual meet season, taking home the dual meet MCAL pennant, but were also successful at the tough state meet Saturday morning.


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