Lady Gauchos run 12th at state
The Saddleback women's cross country team finished in 12th place at the state finals in Fresno on Saturday. It's the third best finish all-time for the women.
Saddleback has made some great strides in 2017 and it culminated with a solid finish at the state meet at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday. The Gauchos ran the opening two meets of the season with not enough harriers to qualify for a team score and finished the season as one of the elite teams in the state.
Saddleback was led by Sara Fleming, who finished 17th overall in the state with a time of 19:12.3. It was a remarkable performance by Fleming (Mission Viejo HS), who finished 17th in the southern half of the state at the SoCal Finals two weeks back. Fleming's time was close to 50 seconds quicker than her time at the SoCal Finals and less than 20 seconds from a top-10 finish.
Saddleback had another top-50 finisher in Sierra Pilarski. The sophomore from Saugus High School crossed the finish line in 20:05.8, which was 39 seconds quicker than her time at the SoCal Finals.