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Lessard wins cross country sectional title, leads MHS boys to states again

Oct 30, 2011

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Maricopa senior Chris Lessard overcame mid-season illness yesterday to regain his form and won the AIA Division II, Section II championship, leading the Rams’ boys’ team to the state finals for the fourth straight year.

The Maricopa girls fell just short of qualifying for states, placing ninth among the 14 teams competing, missing a state bid by two places. However, sophomore Jessica Beach placed 20^th in the sectional race, taking a spot at states as an individual. The sectionals were held at Marana High School Saturday.

“As the boys finished the race we thought we would be lucky to be in the top five,” boys’ coach Duane Anderson said. “We were really happy to find that we finished in third in the team race and have the opportunity to go to the state meet for the fourth year in a row.

Maricopa took third place as a team among the 17 squads entered, finishing with 150 points. As expected, Tucson Canyon Del Oro cruised to the sectional title with 69 points. Tucson Ironwood Ridge was second at 129 and Tucson Catalina Foothills was fourth with 159 points. The Rams also moved up this year from Division III to Division II.

Lessard was fifth about halfway through the race, but surged to a nine second win with a time of 16:32. Matt Taylor placed 17^th in 17:26 and Gibran Aguilar was 30^th at 17:52.

***ADVERTISEMENT***The Maricopa girls ran well individually, with five of the seven posting personal records, but couldn’t quite reach the seventh place team finish needed to advance to states.

Jessica Beach ran a 20:55 personal record to take 20^th place. “Her going out fast and being in contention throughout the whole race helped her hold on and run a PR.” girls’ head coach Ronnie Buchanan said. Twin sister Beth was 35^th in 21:28, while older sister Rachel, a senior, took 52nd with a time of 22:20, which delighted Buchanan. “The major improvement came from Rachel Beach who was pretty consistently our fourth or fifth girl the whole season. She ran as our third girl today and crushed her personal record by 1:39, running a 22:20.”

The Division II state championships will be held Saturday, Nov. 5 at the Cave Creek Golf Course.

Boys’ Individual results

1 Chris Lessard          16:32
17   Matt Taylor             17:26
30   Gibran Aguilar         17:52
47   John Newman         18:29
55   Jonathan Dean        18:43
69   Reed Pace               19:01
85   Caleb St Gailes         19:36

Boys’ team results    17 full teams (Top 10)

1 Canyon Del Oro          69
2 Ironwood Ridge         129
3   Maricopa                   150
4 Catalina Foothills      159
5 Marcos De Niza           167
6 Vista Grande              177
7 Flowing Wells             185
8 Queen Creek              191
9   Salpointe Catholic     243
10 Casa Grande              244

Girls Individual Results (Team results not available)

20 Jessica Beach       20:55 PR
35 Beth Beach           21:28 PR
52 Rachel Beach        22:20 PR
62 Andrea Ibarra       22:41
75 Laura Hernandez   23:32 PR
91 Shiore Ito             25:33 PR
96 Olivia Murcek        27:30

PR – Personal Record