Benicia High senior Zoe Bumgarner raced into the CIF State Cross Country championships after finishing in ninth place at last Saturday’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division III championships in Folsom.
Bumgarner, who finished in 23rd place at the Section meet last year, ran the Willow Hill course in 20 minutes, 22 seconds to qualify for the CIF State meet in Fresno for the first time in her career. Bumgarner finished second at this year’s Solano County Athletic Conference championships after winning every girls varsity race during the regular season.
Bumgarner is only the second Benicia cross country runner to make it to the State level since 2008. Nick Strohl made it to State last season and finished 98th in boys Division III. Bumgarner will run in the Division III State meet on Saturday, Nov. 29.
Benicia’s varsity girls as a team finished in sixth place with 167 points. Vista del Lago won the Division III championship with 51 points, followed by Placer (72) and Rio Americano (82). SCAC rival American Canyon finished 10th with 284 points.
Benicia’s Partika Enid took 33rd in the girls race in 21:46, but individual runners had to finish in the Top 14 to qualify for State. Allie Yip took 40th (22:28), followed by Rachel Kravitz (41st, 22:28) and Savannah Kari (44th, 22:54).
On the boys side, Benicia’s Luis Ramirez and freshman Duran Reyes competed as individuals at the Section meet. Ramirez finished in 36th place in Division III (18:07) while Duran – the SCAC boys varsity champion this season – took 40th in 18:13.
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