Ever since Liberty Charter High School relocated to Alpine, the school’s cross country team has made headlines, and it continues to do so.
The Lions won their division at the 2022 San Diego Section championship meet en route to a seventh-place finish at the state championships. Last year, Liberty Charter finished third in the section finals en route to a sixth-place finish at the state meet.
The Lions climbed the hill once again by winning the Division V boys team title Saturday at Balboa Park’s Morley Field. The next stop is a return trip to the state championship course at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 30.
That’s two division championships in three years and three consecutive trips to the state meet for those counting.
“We set out a plan to win CIF and to place top three in the California state meet this year,” Liberty Charter head coach Daniel Sanchez said. “We have qualified for the California state meet the last three years. We hope to place in the top three this year.”
The Lions scored a division low 67 points to top the field of 15 scoring teams. Francis Parker finished runner-up with 72 points, followed by Santa Fe Christian with 100 points. The top four teams in the division qualified for the upcoming state meet. Maranatha Christian was fourth with 114 points.
Among East County teams, Christian was 10th with 225 points while Mountain Empire was 15th with 458 points.
A team can enter seven runners, five of whom score based on their place-finishes in a race.
High Tech High North County senior Maxwell Gibbons finished on top of the 132-deep field with a winning time of 15:44.3 — five seconds ahead of runner-up finisher Kai Rottier, a junior from High Tech High Mesa.
Santa Fe Christian senior Evan Smith finished third in 16:03.9. The Lions made their presence felt shortly thereafter.
Liberty Charter senior Aiden Burr placed fourth in 16:16.0 at the team’s No. 1 scorer. Sophomore Sam Rohrer was ninth in 16:52.1, followed by senior Luke Mapes in 13th place in 17:01.4, junior Marcos Heers in 18th place in 17:13.0 and senior Noah Hogan in 32nd place in 18:07.4 as the team’s No. 5 scorer.
Sophomore Ethan Acosta finished 38th in 18:19.1 while junior Caleb Acosta was 39th in 18:20.6 to round out the Lions’ complement of seven runners on the 2.96-mile course.
“Our mindset coming into the meet was to run aggressively and not take anything for granted,” Sanchez said. “A championship is never given; it is always earned. We won a hard-fought race where every guy on the team mattered.”
The Lions have four returners from last year’s team and two returners from the first CIF championship team.
The top 20 place-finishers at the section finals receive medals while the top 10 finishers are honored as First Team All-CIF.
Burr and Rohrer earned All- CIF recognition while Mapes and Heers also received medals.
“Our school only has 380 students, and we train in the hilly environment of Alpine,” Sanchez noted. “Most importantly, all these boys are great young men of character. They are more than runners. They will be making a difference in the world as they get older because they are learning how to embrace the value of hard work and commitment. Cross country is a very difficult sport. My program aims to build young men and women of character. I’m very proud of this group.”
Liberty Charter’s girls team placed fourth in Division V. The top three teams qualified for the state meet.
“Our girls program missed state by three points and almost made history as well,” Sanchez said. “They were much improved from last year.”
The Lady Lions had three medalists: senior Cambira Sanchez (13th, 20:51.4), junior Cadelyn Belasco (14th, 20:54.4) and sophomore Cambrey Belasco (18th, 21:25.3).