Wolfpack girls’ win first section title since 2019, 11th overall
— WALNUT – The CIF Southern Section cross country championships took place at Mt. San Antonio College Saturday, Nov. 19, and the local area was once again well represented. For those that follow projections, the Great Oak girls’ team was slated to come in around second place heading into the meet, which is actually where they found themselves at the 1-mile mark of the Division 1 race.
“My instructions were to just attack the course, and let everything fall into place,” Great Oak cross country coach Tammy Draughon said. “We knew they would need to get going early, stay together, and just execute our strategy in order to win.”
Great Oak did indeed stay grouped together in their “pack” for most of the race, fighting for every spot as they crept past Santiago and pre-race favorite Rancho Cucamonga to win the championship. Senior Kelli Gaffney, who will be running for Cal Poly next season, led the way for the Wolfpack and took the individual title with a time of 17 minutes, 29.1 seconds. Gaffney joins past Great Oak greats Destiny Collins, Fatima Cortes and Tori Gaitan as runners who have won a Division 1 girls’ title.
“It’s sad because it’s my last time at this course, but it also means everything to win at Mt. SAC,” Gaffney said afterwards.
With eleven championships under their belt, the girls’ title was a first for coach Tammy Draughon, now in her third year leading the program. The previous 10 championships were won under coach Doug Soles, who resigned in 2020 and now coaches at Herriman High School in Utah. Gaffney was a freshman in 2019 when Great Oak won their last section championship.
This year, Great Oak’s girls team finished with a score of 76, just in front of Santiago (81) and Rancho Cucamonga (88). Also in Division 1, Vista Murrieta’s Erika Kirk qualified for the state meet with a ninth-place finish (18:12.4), and Linfield Christian finished seventh overall in the Division 5 girls’ race. Out of 198 runners, Caylyn Russell finished 61st, Maggie Smith came in 78th, and Ava Shaffer was 84th.
For the boys, Great Oak was the only local top team who brought home the runner-up plaque in Division 1, all the while having a few runners not racing at their peak due to illness or injury. The Wolfpack kept pace with first-place San Clemente, before ultimately finishing second. Gabriel Rodriguez led the way for the Wolfpack, finishing fifth in a time of 15:08.0.
“We could have a much different and stronger lineup at the CIF State meet, so I’m looking forward to seeing what the team can pull off at Woodward Park,” Draughon told the media after the race.
The top seven teams in each division moved on to the state meet this past weekend, as did as many as five individuals not on qualifying teams. Details from that meet will be featured in our next story, which will be live online and in print in our next issue.
JP Raineri can be reached by email at sports@reedermedia.com.
