Westlake boys cross country team finishes second in state

Giguere takes 3rd overall for defending champ

• By Jim Carlisle
• Posted November 30, 2013 at 5:28 p.m.

FRESNO — Westlake High might have been more surprised and elated over the second-place finish at Saturday’s CIF State Cross Country Championships than it was about the Division II title it won last year.

Senior Mikey Giguere took third place to lead the Warriors to their second podium finish in as many years. Giguere crossed the finish line at the 3.1-mile Woodward Park course in 15 minutes, 21 seconds.

Although Giguere finished third overall, the two runners ahead of him were competing as individuals, so Giguere’s placing counted for Westlake as if he had finished first.

Whereas last year the Warriors waited around after their race to see if they had won the championship, this year the suspense centered around whether their performance had been good enough to be invited to the awards presentation.

Westlake scored 139 points to take second behind Saugus’ 110. Dos Pueblos was third with 154.

Simi Valley, making its first state meet appearance in school history, was eighth with 221 points.

Westlake coach Joe Snyder was fairly flabbergasted when he’d learned his team had captured second place.

“You know, I didn’t really know what to expect,” Snyder said. “I knew it was going to be a close race, it was going to be a tight race, but I’m just thrilled to death. I’m ecstatic.”

Giguere, the three-time Marmonte League champion, was preceded across the finish by Garrett Corcoran, of Orange-Villa Park, (15:09) and Andrew Tellames, of Escondido-Orange Glen (15:20), both of whom were running as individuals.

“I was trying to conserve energy for the two miles because I knew it was going at a fast pace,” Giguere said. “So I was trying to stay in the back of the pack and just kind of draft as long as I could. Once it started coming down to the last 800 meters, that’s when I was really just trying to hang on. Then we started battling for the lead. We put on one final kick coming down the straightaway to the finish and I just gave it everything I had.”

Next for Westlake was Sean O’Bryan (14th, 15:50), followed by Chris Costa (19th, 15:53), Graham Rigby (39th, 16:11) and Jonathan Cantle (66th, 16:32).

Westlake’s team time was an impressive 1:19:47 and the gap between its scorers was 1:11.