River Valley earns school's first team state CC berth: Falcons led by Emma Thiara's 14th place 5K finish
Nov. 15—The River Valley High girls cross country team made up seven points from the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II subsection meet to overtake Vacaville at the SJS meet and move into the fourth and final automatic qualifying berth for the California Interscholastic Federation state championships set for Nov. 25 at Woodward Park in Fresno.
"It is with great pleasure (that) I inform you that RVHS cross country just made history with the varsity girls making the state meet as a team," head coach Swarnjit Boyal said. "First time in Yuba City history a team has qualified to state."
Emma Thiara led River Valley with a 14th overall 5K finish in 20 minutes, 01 seconds. She was followed closely by Nevaeh Brown, who finished 16th in 20:12. April Anguiano was 17th in 20:13.
"The top three did their job and placed three in the top 20 and we knew it would come down to our last two scorers," said Boyal, a River Valley graduate and former U.S. Olympic Trials runner.
Autumn Bonds gutted out 49th place in 21:56, while Bella Rose Guillermo crossed 52nd overall in 22:08.
"When all scores came in, River Valley would come in with 124 points — four points away from third (Rio Americano)," Boyal said. "River Valley had just punched their ticket to state."
Boyal is especially proud of Guillermo, who was hampered with a knee injury for the last six weeks.
"She was limited to only two days of running this week but had finally started to feel good and wanted to make sure she was on that line to race for her team," Boyal said. "She would pay dividends as she would slowly move up in the race, and fight hard to finish 52nd.
The state meet begins at noon Nov. 25.
"The girls are hungry to keep making more history," Boyal said.
