Neipp Pounds Pavement for Easy Victory

Thanks to Andrea Neipp of Highland High, the most eagerly anticipated race of the Southern Section cross-country championships at Mt. San Antonio College on Saturday went up in smoke.

The Division II girls’ race was billed as a showdown between Irvine University High sophomore Allyson Marquand, Yucaipa junior Kimi Welsh, Santa Margarita senior Katie Nuances and Neipp, but the Highland senior turned it into a runaway victory.

Neipp clocked 16 minutes 12 seconds over the 2.9-mile “rain” course to leave Marquand (16:34), Welsh (16:40) and Nuances (16:45) gasping in her wake.

The course, which wound through the streets of the Mt. SAC campus and finished on the track, was used because the standard predominantly dirt three-mile course had been deemed unusable by meet manager Hal Harkness on Friday after two days of rain.

Marquand was undefeated entering the race and Welsh and Nuances had finished fifth and seventh in the West regional last year, but Neipp was never challenged after breaking the race open in the second mile.

“I felt really good today,” Neipp said. “I was really focused. I’ve been having trouble focusing on races lately, but I had no trouble concentrating on what I wanted to do today. . . . I was surprised I won by that much.”

Senior David Lopez of Hoover and junior Elaine Canchola of Nordhoff also won individual titles Saturday and Canchola led the Rangers to the Division IV team championship as well.

Lopez clocked 14:15 to win the Division I boys’ race by 11 seconds and to lead Hoover to a fourth-place finish with 124 points.

The top four teams in each race and the top five individuals among the top 20 finishers not on a qualifying team advanced to the state championships at Fresno’s Woodward Park on Nov. 30.

“I’m excited and the guys are pumped,” Lopez said of Hoover’s finish. “We don’t have as much depth on this team as we did last year, but we thought we had a chance at making it to state if we ran well.”

The Nordhoff girls, paced by the 1-3-4 finish of Canchola (16:49), Terrah Chapin (17:27) and Bridie Hatch (17:47), defeated runner-up La Canada, 34-78, for the Division IV title.

It was the third consecutive year that Canchola and Nordhoff have won section titles, but the previous two were at the Division III level.

In other races, Ventura placed second in the Division II girls’ standings and Nordhoff and Oak Park were runners-up in the Division IV and V boys’ events.

Dusty Herman led Nordhoff with a second-place time of 14:21 and Victor Ochoa was fifth in 14:58.