Sonoma Academy's Rylee Bowen wins 3rd state cross country title

FRESNO - While Rylee Bowen’s accomplishment of capturing her third state cross country championship wowed the countless fans who witnessed her run at Woodward Park Saturday, they were also supportive of her fellow Sonoma County runners who finished their respective 5,000-meter races after going through a horrific season.

Bowen capped her senior cross country season at Sonoma Academy in 18 minutes and 17.9 seconds on her championship run in division 5.

She was part of a pack of six competitors who could have won a gold medal for any one of them, and junior Emily Perez of St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda finished second in 18:24.2, followed by Lexi Watkins of La Jolla Country Day in San Diego County and Grace Daily from Branson of Ross - both of whom clocked in at 18:26.9. Sophie Gitlin from team champion Flintridge Prep finished at 18:32.9 and Rylee’s sophomore sister, Kate Bowen, medaled in 10th place in 18:49.4.

“It’s an incredible and a very humbling experience to be talked about in the same breath with (Julia) Stamps and (Sarah) Bei,” said Bowen, referring to Sonoma County’s past state champions. “Just to be right up there with them is an incredible honor.”

Bowen, who won the Division 5 state championship as a freshman and again as a sophomore, was averaging 5:53 minutes per mile, while her sister was at 6:03.1.

More important to Bowen was seeing her fellow runners compete in the wake of October’s North Bay fires that uprooted their lives, destroyed friends’ homes and canceled a stretch of school days.

“The fires affected everyone multiple times over,” Bowen said after receiving her gold medal. “It had such an impact in the county; it’s amazing to see everyone go through a recovery.”

She shared her school’s spotlight on Saturday, as Sonoma Academy junior Andre Williams finished in fourth place in 15:52.2 while Evan Pattinelli from Flintridge Prep won in 15:38.7.

“In the first mile, he was in 18th place and he worked his way up,” Sonoma Academy coach Dan Aldridge said of Williams. “I told him before the race you have it here (in his heart); now just dig down and go get them.”

Sonoma Academy’s Kheva Mann was 18th in 16:29.2, while Brendan Loftus finished 42nd in 17:00.5. The school’s boys team finished 46th in division 5.

In the division 3 girls race, Sydnie Rivas of Maria Carrillo medaled in 10th place in 18:41.7 as Gillian Wagner from Redwood-Larkspur won in 17:49.3. Rivas’ Maria Carrillo teammate Aimee Armstrong was 14th overall in 18:49.4.

“I was in 14th place most of the race,” Rivas said. “With about 600 meters to go, I started picking off girls, and being my senior year, I just needed that extra juice.”

Maria Carrillo coach Greg Fogg took his teams to train near his home in Reno in the aftermath of the fires.

“They had big ambitions. It wasn’t easy,” Fogg said. “Running is what grounds them. It was a good distraction. They went through a lot. This was a special season.”

Piner coach Luis Rosales shared those sentiments.

“For what all these kids and families have been through, this wasn’t a cliche, it was real,” he said. ”This does not diminish the kind of season we had. You still had to compete and there are a lot of teams who would like to be here in our shoes.”

Jonny Vargas was Piner’s top runner, finishing in 21st place in 16:27.5 in boys division 4. Anthony Grove from Serra of the Southern Section won in 15:31.5.

In the team competition, Maria Carrillo’s North Coast Section champion boys team finished in 10th, led by Ben Lawson, who placed 40th. Windsor junior Lucas Chung placed 46th in the division 3 final.