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McDowall, Fogg win league titles Montgomery senior McDowall posts personal best; Fogg's win her first By RICH RUPPRECHT THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Montgomery's Blake McDowall, Maria Carrillo's Leanne Fogg and the Pumas' boys' and girls' varsity teams showed the way Friday at Spring Lake in the North Bay League cross country championships. McDowall ran the fourth fastest time at Spring Lake in running away from the field, winning in 15 minutes and nine seconds. Last week, McDowall ran a personal best of 15:21 at Spring Lake. "You're never truly happy with how you run," McDowall said. "My goal was to break 15 minutes." McDowall, a senior, has developed into one of the top boys' runners from the Empire all-time, with most of his accomplishments and accolades coming this year. "No, I couldn't have predicted this," McDowall said. "At the start of high school, I kind of just fell into running." McDowall won a handful of races this season, including the Stanford Invitational. He's the favorite in next weekend's North Coast Section Division II race and is highly rated for the same division at the state meet. McDowall is considering running next year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or UC Davis. Maria Carrillo senior Calvin Thigpen was second in the boys' varsity race in 15:27 (19 seconds faster than his previous best), Puma junior Nathan Huckeba was third in 15:52, and Santa Rosa's Brice Winkler was fourth in 15:55. Fogg edged Maria Carrillo teammate Kristen Sanzari to win the girls' varsity race, winning in 18:19. Sanzari was second in 18:27. Fogg, a senior, has been a fixture on Maria Carrillo running teams for four years, but this was her first winning race in cross country. "I'm excited," Fogg said about the win. "I try to run with positive thoughts. We (Sanzari and Fogg) were working together for most of the race. We've done that a lot." Sanzari won the NBL championship race two years ago as a sophomore in 18:05, and Fogg was second in 18:06. Last year, Fogg was diagnosed with Graves' disease and also suffered a stress fracture. She came back to run cross country at the end of the season. Rancho Cotate senior Shannon Rich was third in 18:30, and Santa Rosa sophomore Emmy Cozine was fourth in 18:40. It was an all-around great day for the Maria Carrillo running program. The Pumas won both the boys' and girls' team championships on Friday, locking up the league crown, based on a points system. It was the fourth consecutive NBL championship for both the Maria Carrillo boys and girls. Both have also won 56 consecutive NBL races. Maria Carrillo coach Danny Aldridge had plenty of team highlights to ponder. His favorites were Fogg's victory and the top-five runners on the boys' team running a combined 1:19:47 for a 15:57 race average. Carrillo also heads into the NCS meet as defending champs in both boys and girls in Division III. The Maria Carrillo girls are ranked No. 1 this season in NCS, and the Puma boys are ranked No. 2, behind only Acalanes. Maria Carrillo made it a clean sweep at the NBL meet, also winning JV boys' and girls' titles. The Puma JV girls posted a perfect score of 15 on the strength of having the top five finishers. Actually, the first six runners across the finish line - and seven of the first eight - were Maria Carrillo runners.
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