Senior Lucas Chung, freshman Lilja represent Jaguars
Senior cross country star Lucas Chung put an exclamation point on the best season in Windsor High School history on Saturday, capturing 12th place overall in Division 3 at the CIF State Cross Country Championships in Fresno.
Competing on the classic, 3-mile Woodward Park course, Chung ran a tactical race in his second state appearance, passing 16 runners in the final two miles to cross the finish line in a sizzling 15:50. The time was a 46-second improvement over his clocking last year.
“I ran to the best of my ability and left it all out there,” he said after the race. “I didn’t want to fall too far back but I didn’t want to go out too fast either, so I ran accordingly and found a middle-ground. I’m very happy with what I did today.”
Just four days earlier, Chung led the Windsor charge at the North Coast Section meet in Hayward, which was forced to cancel more than half of its scheduled divisional races due to poor air quality.
The four-year senior battled with Redwood High School’s nationally-ranked Liam Anderson until the final strides to claim second place in 15:06. Other Windsor finishers at NCS included Dustin Smith (38th, 16:43), Hunter Larson (63rd, 17:23), Valentino Bugica (101st, 19:09) and Ben Kvamme (115th, 20:13).
“Lucas has been running out front by himself in all of our league meets, so he decided to separate himself from the pack and force Anderson to catch him,” Jags’ coach Pete Stefanisko said. “He held him off until the last 400 meters and finished second.”
It was a record-shattering season for Chung, who set new school standards on every course he ran on this year.
Great frosh season
Meanwhile, freshman phenom Lilja Chung, who battled injury to finish the league season undefeated, also put a stamp on a tremendous fall campaign at the state meet, completing the Division 3 race in a fast 21:13. The time was good for 153rd place out of 214 runners. Unable to run at NCS when her race was cancelled, she was awarded a spot at state by an advancement committee.
“She hadn’t run outside until the day before the state meet, so she really just wanted to give it her best,” Stefanisko noted. “It was good that she got a chance to compete and hopes that she will be back the next three years.”
