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By Steve Brand
For the Press Democrat
FRESNO -- A year ago, in her first season of cross country, Sarah
Sumpter finished 11th in the State Cross Country Championships.
Not bad for a rookie.
But nowhere, even during an Alice in Wonderland moment, could Sumpter
have imagined that a year later she would be introduced as the Division IV
champion, capping a season that was dominant from the beginning.
"If you had told me I'd be first (a year ago), I'd have laughed at
you," admitted the Healdsburg High senior. "I've had an amazing year. I got
so excited the last 100 meters I had to tell myself to go for everything."
Not that you could tell.
On a day when both the Petaluma boys team and Casa Grande High's Jacque
Taylor placed second, Sumpter was dominant, maintaining a fiercely
competitive stare behind a borrowed pair of sunglasses.
As is her style, she dared the others in the race to stay with her
through the early part of the race over Woodward Park's relatively flat
3.1-mile course but no one took the challenge as she reeled off splits of
5:23 for the mile and 11:10 for two miles.
By the time she powered across the finish line in 17 minutes, 26
seconds, Sumpter was 44 seconds in front of San Jose Valley Christian's
Jennifer Bergman.
Victories don't come much more convincing than that.
Her first words after she caught her breath, though, were not queries
about her time, but about how she fared compared to friendly league rival
Jacque Taylor.
Well. Very well.
Taylor placed second to Irvine Woodbridge's Christine Babcock, who
defended her Division II title in 17:04, clocking the fastest time of the
day.
"This is really awesome," said Taylor, a 16-year-old sophomore."I held
back a little the last two weeks so I could peak for the state meet. It was
worth it."
Taylor expected Babcock but early on found herself in a foot race with
Elizabeth Apgar of San Diego Lincoln who moved up from Division V where she
placed second a year ago. At the 1 1/2-mile mark, Taylor made her move and
opened a gap on Apgar she maintained to the finish line.
She also tried to go after Babcock the final half-mile.
"There are some rolling hills there were I thought I was closing the
gap but she's awful good," said Taylor, who will compete in the Foot Locker
Western Regionals Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. "I'm ready for Foot
Locker, this motivates me."
Petaluma's boys, who came into the championships on a roll and held
high title hopes, ran into a Los Angeles Loyola team that bunched its five
scorers between 5th and 28th with a scant 36-second gap, scoring 72 points.
Although Sterling Lockett led the way for the Trojans with an
11th-place finish in 15:57, the margin between the No. 1 runner and No. 5
was 50 seconds as Petaluma scored 159 points in a sport where, like golf,
low score wins.
"A few weeks back, Loyola was ranked 5th in the nation," said Petaluma
coach Jim Lynch after his team made it a point to find the Cubs contingent
and personally congratulate them. "Then they started to show some
weaknesses and we felt we matched up real well. They returned to their
September-October form.
"I'm so proud of this team. In a meet like this, it sometimes comes
down to your fifth and sixth runner -- they (Loyola) were just too tight of
a team."
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