CROSS COUNTRY: Simi Valley's Sarah Baxter continues to keep her distance from competition

OJAI -- Nearly a week after her record-setting performance at the 65th annual Mount San Antonio College Invitational, Simi Valley's Sarah Baxter was still attracting a following on and off the course at the Ventura County cross country championships, even signing an autograph for a fellow competitor.

As for Baxter's opponents, they still remained a considerable distance behind the junior standout Friday at the Lake Casitas Course.

Baxter broke Liberty Miller's 2009 program record by clocking 17 minutes, 15.01 seconds, moving into second all-time on the hilly 3-mile layout -- trailing only Mission Prep's Jordan Hasay, who ran 17:04 in 2005 -- to win her third consecutive county title, leading Simi Valley to a 25-109 victory over Newbury Park.

"(Coach Roger Evans) just told me to go out there and do my own thing," said Baxter, who covered the 2.94-mile course at Mt. SAC in 16:00, lowering the all-time record by 16 seconds Oct. 20.

"I just wanted to run the best I could and be able to stay relaxed. It wasn't hard to focus on running (since Mt. SAC), but it was weird to see everything else going on about the race and to see my name mentioned on (Yahoo blogs)."

Moorpark's Monika Gyalay continued to build momentum following her Div. II varsity win at Mt. SAC, finishing second in 18:07.29 to help the Musketeers finish third with 115 points.

"I was feeling tired, but I didn't want that to get in my head. I was pretty excited about

how well I did," Gyalay said. "I was definitely going for second place."

Simi Valley's Sarah Riggs used a strong surge in the final mile to place third in 18:28.19, as the Pioneers also had Charlotte Utash (18:51.42), Samantha Tetef (18:55.12) and Courtney Korven (18:55.45) finish sixth through eighth.

"I wanted to do whatever I could to help the team. I want to be there at the end so we have a chance to achieve all of our goals later in the season," Riggs said. "I always keep it in my mind that those are the people I need to be passing (at the section final or state), so I just decided to go for it to do it for the team."

Westlake's Jenny Giguere (18:43.69) was fifth, Malibu's Caroline Pietrzyk (18:59.08) took ninth and Moorpark's Danielle Ip (19:05.51) placed 10th. Royal's Brianne Holland (19:16.46) and Newbury Park's Swathi Samuel (19:19.40) rounded out the top dozen competitors.

Oak Park's Sahm Bazargan (15:25.07) and Patrick Thedinga (15:27.17) took first and second in the boys' race, leading the Eagles to an 87-92 victory over Simi Valley and a repeat as county champion. Newbury Park's Jonathan Byrne (15:34.37) was third, Camarillo's Esteban Vega (15:43.50) took fourth and Westlake's Mikey Giguere (15:50.77) placed fifth.

"We couldn't have done it without each other," said Bazargan, Oak Park's first county champion since 2007.

"We find each other early in the race and we keep each other in check."

Added Thedinga: "It was just a matter of staying composed. We knew they were going to go out fast because they always do, we just had to stay patient."

Juan Jimenez led the way for Simi Valley, finishing sixth in 15:51.74. Camarillo's Joel Gonzalez was eighth in 15:54.16, with Moorpark's Michael Picchini (15:56.76) and Newbury Park's Frederick Pond (15:56.82) completing the top 10. Ventura's Kyle Medina, the leader through 2 miles, finished seventh in 15:52.66.

Chris Costa (15:58.41), Rocky Peterson (16:00.77) and Graham Rigby (16:00.87) all placed in the top 15 for Westlake, which was third with 103 points. Nikolaus Utash took 13th for Simi Valley in 16:00.58.