Stanislaus State women’s cross country team wins its first CCAA championship
Led by former Stanislaus District standouts, Stanislaus State won its first California Collegiate Athletic Association women’s cross country title on Saturday in San Marcos.
Kaela Dishion, who competed at Bret Harte High and was The Bee’s All-District Runner of the Year in 2016, won the race, finishing the 6-kilometer course in 20 minutes, 41.7 seconds to set a course record.
Sabrina Garcia, who competed at Riverbank High, finished second in 20:53.
Dishion won the conference’s Runner of the Year Award and was named Newcomer of the Year while her teammate, Katarina Borchin, who finished 17th in 21:40.2, was named Freshman of the Year. She is a Calaveras High graduate.
Five Stanislaus State scorers were among the first 17 of out 87 runners to cross the finish line.
“This has been a long journey, but it has been amazing,” Stanislaus State coach Darren Holman said. “The reason this win is so wonderful is that the struggle was there. The adversity that you go through makes meeting your goal that much sweeter.’
Also scoring were Nancy Jaurez (7th, 21:46.6) and Iris Carrillo (11th, 21:23.4), who competed at Weston Ranch High in Stockton. Stanislaus State’s Grace Kenny finished 36th in 22:30.7.
“We came here and did what we wanted to do,” Dishion said. “We had a lot of fun, too.”
Stanislaus State finished with 38 points and was followed by runner-up Chico State (55), which entered the race having won the past 12 conference titles, and Cal State San Marcos (68).
The Warriors had finished second in 2012, 2013 and 2018.
“From the minute I got to Stan State, the goal was to win a conference championship and that has been our mission every day,” Holman said. “We had to take some risks in training. We had to train at the level that would give us a chance to win. To be great you have to take risks and this team wants to be great.”
The race, which was run largely on dirt paths around the campus’ athletic fields, started and ended at Mangrum Track.
“I do like the dirt courses a lot ... for some reason, I think I’ve always done well on dirt courses,” said Dishion, who averaged 5:33 miles. “I do kind of like finishing on the track. It makes it a little bit faster.”
Meanwhile, the men’s team finished fourth and was led by Jose Garcia, who finished the 8-kilometer course in 24:55.
This story was originally published October 24, 2021 at 9:19 AM.
