Chiara Dailey rolls to big win at Mt. SAC

WALNUT— A year ago, feeling somewhat under the weather, La Jolla’s Chiara Dailey opened a large early lead at the Mt. SAC Invitational cross country meet, but faded for a rare second-place finish.

She didn’t take any chances this year.

The Stanford-bound senior sizzled the first mile in 5 minutes, 17.4 seconds to lead by 30 seconds, plowed through the first set of hills to open a 50-second gap and then pushed the final mile to win the Division 3-4-5 Team Sweepstakes Friday by 70 seconds in 17:19.1.

“I knew early I had a big gap and there are places along the way you can tell how you’re doing,” said Dailey, who has won Mt. SAC three times. “It’s a race we always do, although I’m not feeling that well again this year. I was just happy to win.”

And, while she was routing the state’s best, Sage Creek’s girls rallied from a close second to pull out a 50-58 win over Santa Margarita in the team chase.

Chloe Barett finished third in 18:21.5 to pace Sage Creek, which added a fifth-place finish from Isabel Gladden, an 11th from Josie Hoy, a 14th from Beatrice Gladden and a 22nd from Anna Shulika.

The Bobcats’ 2-5 runners each beat a Santa Margarita competitor to score the narrow win.

The section’s power in the smaller-division schools displayed itself elsewhere as Christian’s Elliana Patterson captured the Division 3-4-5 Individual Sweepstakes in an impressive 17:22.6, one spot ahead of Francis Parker’s Ari Llorens, who ran 17:32.4.

Santana’s Harper Diaz finished fourth in 17:53.0 while Classical Academy’s Lindsey Billotte was sixth in 18:04.5.

Point Loma’s Nicole Witt was 15th overall as the Pointers captured the team race with 102 points in front of Big Bear’s 127.

Sage Creek’s boys also had a big day as Josiah Bowman’s second-place finish in the Individual Sweepstakes led the Bobcats to a third-place in the team competition. Bowman was in fourth with a mile to go but passed two runners to finish in 14:57.0, behind Calabasas’ Viewpoint Olly O’Connor (14:48.2).

In non-sweepstakes races yesterday, La Jolla Country Day’s Sophia Zhou won the girls’ Division 3-4-5 varsity race, covering the 3 miles in 19:41.1, three places in front of teammate Raine Vines (20:37.4).

Earlier in the day, in Division 3, Oceanside’s Malia Guillen sped to a second place finish in 19:22.3 while in another D3 race, Ramona’s Keira Pendergraph led a 2-3-4-5-6 section finish at 19:30.1, followed by Vista’s Elena Sanchez (19:45.9) and Olivia Rilea (20:02.0), Escondido’s Sonya Nichols (20:03.8) and Vista’s Tania Chavez (20:04.5).

Divisions 1 and 2 run Saturday.