Noonan produces fastest 3-mile effort at Oak Canyon Park by clocking 13:59.4, as he and Hernandez (14:06.9) take top two spots to help Dolphins secure first boys sweepstakes title since 2019; Trabuco Hills junior Barker follows multiple crowns with Laguna Hills to prevail in 16:08.1, as JSerra is first girls program to repeat since Capistrano Valley in 2013-14

By Pete Marshall for DyeStat

SILVERADO, Calif. – Senior Jayden Hernandez is making quite the impact for the Dana Hills High boys cross country team.

In his second meet running for Dana Hills after transferring from Godinez and serving a mandatory 30-day sit-out period, Hernandez combined with junior Evan Noonan to create a powerful 1-2 punch Saturday at the Orange County Championships at Oak Canyon Park.

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Noonan covered the 3-mile layout in 13 minutes, 59.4 seconds, the fastest time achieved by any competitor since the meet was moved to Oak Canyon Park, to secure his first career Orange County title and Hernandez was second (14:06.9) in the boys sweepstakes race as Dana Hills edged San Clemente for the team championship by a 48-53 margin.

A year ago, Noonan was second and Hernandez was sixth for Godinez. San Clemente won the team title, with Dana Hills finishing fifth.

“(Hernandez joining the team) is the best thing I could ask for,” Noonan said. “Knowing that Jayden is such a good runner and when Jayden keeps up with me it lets me know where my training is at. Everything has gotten better. My times for repeats have been improving. It’s much easier to run a slower time when no one is pushing you.”

Hernandez made his Dana Hills debut Oct. 7 at the ASICS Clovis Invitational, placing 11th at Woodward Park in Fresno, with Noonan taking third to help the Dolphins earn a 124-129 victory against Great Oak in the Rob Brenner boys championship race.

Noonan and Hernandez were followed Saturday by Garrett Woodruff securing sixth in 14:24.3, Logan Harris achieving 16th in 14:37.6 and Oliver Hunter placing 25th in 14:46.6. Mike Ayala was 52nd for Dana Hills in 15:24.0.

“We’ve been practicing all summer long on closing, with pacing workouts,” Hernandez said. “In terms of that, we had a near-perfect race (Saturday).” 

San Clemente senior Brett Ephraim, who finished fourth (14:16.6) after he was barely edged out for third by Tesoro’s Griffin Kushen (14:15.3), remained upbeat despite his team’s second-place finish.

“We finished five across first (but) it’s pretty tough to beat a team that goes 1-2,” Ephraim said. “We knew going in they were the team to beat. All of our team got big course PRs. Our team split was amazing as well. I’m not bummed about it at all and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.”

The girls sweepstakes went as expected.

Junior Holly Barker won her third straight individual crown, although this time she was representing Trabuco Hills High after transferring from Laguna Hills.

Barker’s time of 16:08.1, also the fastest achieved by a female athlete at Oak Canyon Park, was comfortably ahead of runner-up Keaton Robar, a junior from Newport Harbor (16:35.4). Barker triumphed last season in 16:51.6.

“Going in, I put a lot of personal pressure on myself. I want to make it my third year in a row taking the win. At the same time, I can’t get too comfortable,” Barker said. “I wanted to go out and work on running with confidence, running like I’m the only one in that race. A lot of good competition, a lot of amazing runners out there.”

The race wasn’t perfect for Barker, who stumbled at the start, but she said that helped her.

“It gets you in the mindset that you can just go,” she said. “Running’s not perfect, and neither is your start sometimes. You just get up and keep going.”

To no one’s surprise, JSerra won the girls team title with 46 points, easily beating runner-up Trabuco Hills, which finished with 110. JSerra became the first girls team to repeat since Capistrano Valley in 2013-14. 

JSerra’s team was so strong that the Lions’ No. 7 runner, Anne Elise Packard, was 41st, and she would have easily finished in at least the top five for any other school in the race.

JSerra was led by Sophie Polay, a junior transfer from Santa Margarita, who took third (16:37.5).

“It’s my first time running this course, so I didn’t know what to expect,” Polay said. “Yesterday, Coach (Chase Frazier) took us to the course and showed us the spots to push and the spots to take it easy. I think that really helped. I think our team should be super proud of what we did today.”

Brynn Garcia earned eighth in 16:47.7, Kaylah Tasser took 11th in 17:07.3, Reese Holley finished 14th in 17:10.5, Georgia Jeanneret secured 17th in 17:20.0 and Chloe Elbaz achieved 25th in 17:47.4 for the Lions.

Huntington Beach Edison freshman Avery Williams won the girls varsity medium schools race in 18:20.7, with Fullerton Union securing the team victory by a 34-52 margin against El Dorado.

Diego Mejia, a senior at Godinez, won the boys varsity medium schools competition in 15:14.1.

Capistrano Valley, led by runner-up Angel Perez (15:22.8), produced a 61-109 victory against Fullerton Union.