Prep cross country: RV's Brown, Live Oak's Chapdelaine compete at state today

Jeff Larson, Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, Calif.
·3 min read

Nov. 26—Today marks one of the largest and most historic distance races in the country: The California Interscholastic Federation state championships once again return to Fresno's Woodward Park where individual and team champions will be crowned all day.

River Valley High freshman Nevaeh Brown and Live Oak junior Stephan Chapdelaine will both represent the mid-valley today in Fresno.

Brown, who will be competing in the state girls Division II race, is capping off an historic season for the RV varsity girls and boys teams, according to head coach Eric Jessen.

Not only is Brown the first freshman from RV to earn a state bid, she stoked the fire for the varsity girls squad all season and postseason.

Brown led the varsity team to the school's first-ever Capital Valley Conference team championship where the team took home 50 percent of the CVC awards, Jessen said.

At league, Brown's fifth place finish was aided by a third place mark from Layla Muhammed. Brown and Muhammed joined three other Falcons on the CVC team: Gianna Davit (seventh), Emma Thiara (eighth) and Taylor Nelson (ninth).

Together the unit moved forward to nearly qualify for state as a team, finishing sixth overall with 164 points at the Sac-Joaquin Section championships.

Jessen said nothing that the varsity teams did this season was unexpected.

"We knew how hard the team has been working ever since summer conditioning began in June," Jessen said. "For six days each week, over the past six months, our group of 35 runners have remained focused and determined to achieve their goals. While some of our runners did fall short of their own personal goals, the successes we saw this year were ones that we anticipated and had looked forward to seeing them come to fruition."

Brown stands alone now as the lone RV athlete still competing in cross country.

Today is the finale of the first of Brown's four seasons, and according to the freshman another milestone could be falling at Woodward Park.

"My expectation going into Woodward Park is to break 19 minutes and shoot for my school's girls 5K record of 18:33," Brown said.

RV varsity boys

The boys squad was led by four-year standout Eddie Jensen all year.

At league, Jensen ran 16:03 to break the RV 5K record previously held by assistant coach, Swarnjit Boyal, since 2012.

"By running a new school record Eddie became the school's first individual CVC champion," Jessen said.

Other state qualifiers

Live Oak's Stephan Chapdelaine earned a second straight trip to Woodward Park following his 17th place finish in 17:49.39 at the Northern Section championships held each year at West Valley's Cottonwood course.

Live Oak head coach Mike Voth said Chapdelaine qualified for the state boys D-IV race and will look to improve his time of 17:42.4 from last year's Woodward Park race.

To follow the local athletes from home visit https://www.rtspt.com/events/cif/xc2022.