Sonora’s Land medals at CIF State cross country meet

In a very short time, Sonora High’s Cassi Land has established herself as one of the Stanislaus District’s elite female runners.

It’s a reputation that’s likely here to stay.

Just a freshman, Land posted the fastest time of any Stanislaus District runner competing Saturday at the CIF State Cross Country Meet in Fresno, parlaying it to a ninth-place finish in the Division IV race at Woodward Park.

Land finished the 5,000-meter course in 18 minutes, 39 seconds to take home a medal. She was 64 seconds behind winner Caroline Pietrzyk (17:35) of Malibu.

Land’s performance, which was well off the freshman girls state meet course record of 16:57 set by Sarah Baxter of Simi Valley in 2010, was clearly the best of the Stanislaus District runners competing under a partly cloudy sky and in five divisions each for both boys and girls.

The Riverbank High girls, behind junior Kim Rubalcava, was the highest-finishing team among the locals at 13th in the Division IV race. Twenty three teams and 193 runners competed in that division.

The Bruins finished one point behind Half Moon Bay and ahead of Amador, which beat Riverbank for the Section title on Nov. 15.

“The girls were real happy to beat Amador,” Riverbank coach Monte Wood said. “We finished 18th last year, so we were pleased.”

Along with Ruvalcaba, Wood said helping to guide Riverbank to the solid team finish were runners Nos. 2 through 5 – Haley Richardson, Sabrina Garcia, Joslyn Beliera and Stephanie Bernal. Beliera’s 20:59 was her first race under 21 minutes, Wood said.

Land was followed by fellow Stanislaus District runners Hannah Hull of Calaveras (19:01, 13th), Kaela Dishion of Bret Harte (19:09, 15th), Ruvalcaba (19:23, 25th) and Ripon’s Ellie Waters (20:22, 69th).

Ruvalcaba worked her way up from 49th after the first split monitoring the runners was recorded in her first six minutes. Land remained among the leaders throughout the race.

Among the other highlights:

– Riverbank senior Adan Chavez finished 53rd in the Division IV boys race with a personal record of 16:39. Hughson’s Daniel Yanez – the only other Stanislaus County runner competing outside of the Riverbank boys and girls – was 76th in 16:53. Adan’s twin brother, Emmanuel, finished 95th in 17:07.

– The three teams aside from Riverbank that qualified from the Stanislaus District – Atwater boys, Bret Harte boys and Ripon Christian girls – all finished out of the Top 20.

– In the Division III girls race, Iris Carrillo of Weston Ranch finished 26th in 18:58.

– Among the Sac-Joaquin Section teams competing, the highest finish went to second-place Bella Vista in Division I girls.

– The CIF State Meet record at the Woodward Park course set by Riverbank’s German Fernandez is safe for another year. Phillip Rocha of Aracdia was one of just two competitors to complete the course in under 15 minutes. His 14:58 was well off the 14:24 run by Fernandez in 2007.

This story was originally published November 29, 2014 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Sonora’s Land medals at CIF State cross country meet."