San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande, Paso Robles boys cross country teams qualify for CIF State Championships

San Luis Obispo High School’s Callum Bolger paced a successful day for SLO County runners with a first-place finish Saturday in the Division 4 boys race of the CIF-Southern Section Finals at Riverside Cross Country Course.

Bolger, a senior who recently committed to run next season at Stanford, covered the 3-mile course in 14 minutes, 26.5 seconds, besting second-place finisher Jared Rodriguez of Foothill Technology by nearly 30 seconds. His finish led San Luis Obispo to a third-place finish with 131 points to qualify the Tigers for the CIF State Cross Country Championships.

Also for the Tigers, Matt White placed 12th with a time of 15:31.1, Jacob Andreatta 36th with a 16:01.1, Aaron Bloom 40th (16:03.3) and Garron Knox 45th (16:05.9).

The Arroyo Grande and Paso Robles boys teams will also be headed to state.

Arroyo Grande placed fourth in the Division 1 race with 229 points on the strength of a solid team performance. With their top runner Christian Ricketts at less than full strength due to illness, Eagles runners placed 13th through 101st in the field of 174.

Ricketts, who turned in the top overall time in any division in last weekend’s prelims, placed 13th (14:58.8), Luis Jazo came in 29th (15:12.6), Spencer Eley 79th (15:41.0), Jayson Maule 90th (15:45.6) and Andrew Swieringa 101st (15:50.6).

Paso Robles placed third in the Division 3 race, paced by the third-place finish of Trad Berti (14:42.9). Also for the Bearcats, Luis Armendariz placed sixth (14:55.5), Pablo Cortes 32nd (15:30.5), Kyle Meeder 44th (15:39.5), Steven Scruggs 71st (16:05.5), Damian Navarro 79th (16:11.9) and Ian Young 86th (16:14.3).

Paso Robles solo runner Annie Meeder also qualified for state with a seventh-place finish in the girls Division 3 race, turning in a time of 17:49.0.

Also in the boys Division 4 race: Nipomo placed eighth with 270 points on the strength of Garrett Morgan’s 31st-place finish (15:57.9). Atascadero finished 13th with 321 points on the strength of Xavier Gonzales’ 19th-place finish (15:47.1).

In the girls Division 4 race, San Luis Obispo placed ninth with 270 points on the strength of Samantha Simard’s 23rd-place finish (18:22.1). The top local finisher in the Division 4 girl’s race was Atascadero’s Ellie Nisbet, who placed eighth (17:54.3) to lead the Greyhounds to an 11th-place finish.

Morro Bay placed 18th on the strength of Audrey McClish’s 15th-place finish (18:07). And Nipomo’s Mackenzie Wisneski placed 65th (19:13.4) to lead her team to a 19th place finish.

The top seven teams in each division qualify for the state meet, to be held next Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno, while the top five runners not from a qualifying team advance to state.

This story was originally published November 20, 2016 at 6:58 PM with the headline "San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande, Paso Robles boys cross country teams qualify for CIF State Championships."