In winning its Division 4 boys heat at the CIF-Southern Section Cross Country Prelims at Mount San Antonio College, Oaks Christian's five scorers were close.
Really close.
Like within two-tenths of a second between its No. 1 and No. 5 runners.
Oaks Christian won its heat and was one of 14 area teams advancing to the section finals next Saturday.
Scoring for Oaks Christian were: 4. Cooper McNee (16:19.7), 5. Vin Krueger (16:19.7), 6. Arizechkwu Nwosu (16:19.8), 7. Christian Yoder (16:19.8), and 8. Joshua Mitchell (16:19.9).
Oak Park's boys and girls teams were Division 3 heat winners.
Like Oaks Christian, the Oak Park boys had a tight grouping. Quinn Foster was 11th in 16:13.7. Other scorers were: 12. Ethan Marley (16:13.8), 14. Luke Hodges (16:17.6), 15. Mark Hodges (16:23.2), and 16. Dhruv Kulami (16:28.0).
Sophia Perez (18:27.6) and Tate Creason (19:21.3) were third and 11th for the Oak Park girls.
Thacher won its Division 5 boys heat. All seven runners were in the top 30. Mateoi Escalante (17:00.6) and Lucas De Clercq (17:01.8) were second and third.
Neither Camarillo or Channel Islands advanced out of the prelims.
Camarillo was eighth in its heat. James Rieckewald-Schmidt (16:39.7) and Cruise Clemens (16:47.0) were 28th and 33rd.
Uriel Texis (16:59.7) was the top runner for Channel Islands, placing 36th. Channel Islands was 11th.
Division 2
Ventura, Rio Mesa and Newbury Park qualified for the finals.
Blake Harris of Ventura (15:56.9) and Hueneme's JR Lesher (15:17.3) were individual heat winners.
Harris led Ventura to fourth place. Ethan Jekogian (16:23.3) was 15th.
Rio Mesa's Derek Luna (15:29.5) was runner-up to Lesher in their heat. Rio Mesa advanced to the final by placing fourth. Marco Sanchez (16:12.0) was 10th for the Spartans.
Newbury Park won a team time tiebreaker to advance to the finals. The Panthers were sixth in their heat. Micah Dickran was sixth (16:01.4).
Led by Hunter Lee's (16:06.6) fourth-place finish, Moorpark qualified third in its heat. Hans Delatorre (16:44.7) was 16th.
Agoura advanced out of its heat by placing third. Dorian Bening (16:23.4) and James Glynn (16:26.4) were fourth and eighth.
Oren Hill (third, 15:42.8) and Oliver Zimmerman (second, 15:50.3) of Thousand Oaks qualified as individuals out of their heats.
Division 4
With only five-tenths of a second between its top four runners, Foothill Tech placed second in its heat.
Henry Fulk (16:47.3) and Viggio Bortolin (16:47.4) were 14th and 15th for the Dragons.
Nordhoff placed ninth in its heat, but did not advance. Alejandro Ortiz (18:39.7) and Nathan Lovato (18:45.9) were 55th and 58th.
Santa Clara was 12th in its heat. Elian Herrera (18:53.0) and Daniel Aguilar (19:09.3) were 37th and 43rd.
Oxnard placed eighth, but did not advance. Brianna Richards (19:39.8) was 14th.
Division 2
With Sadie Engelhardt (18:31.0) and Aelo Curtis (18:31.1) placing second and third, Ventura was second in its heat. Emmy McMeekin (20:01.3) and Brody Daw (20:07.3) were 15th and 18th for the Cougars.
Newbury Park qualified for the finals with its fourth-place finish. Sophia Grant (18:37.5) was third.
Westlake needed a tiebreaker to reach the Division 2 finals.
The cumulative time for each team's top five finishers breaks a tie of sixth place teams in Division 3.
Westlake's team time was 0.12 of a second faster than University's. Rae Rae Castagna (19:29.0) was 13th for Westlake.
Division 3
Simi Valley placed four runners in top 25 en route to a second-place finish in its heat. Angelina Espinoza (19:43.2) and Acacia Rojas (19:56.7) were 11th and 13th for the Pioneers.
West Torrance edged Thousand Oaks and Moorpark in a team time tiebreaker for the last qualifying spot for the division finals.
All three were tied for sixth in their respective heats.
For Thousand Oaks, Maggie De La Rionda (19:16.5) was sixth.
Moorpark did not advance, but Caulie Wight (19:19.0) and Jenna Murray (19:34.6) did qualify as individuals.
Qualifying as individuals were Reese Tamburro (19:21.6) of Agoura and Sofia Francini of Calabasas, who was second in her heat in 18:15.4.
Oaks Christian had four top 20 finishers and finished second in its heat. Delaney Napierala (19:07.1) and Elizabeth Walker (19:52.5) were second and 13th.
Foothill Tech qualified by placing fifth in its heat. Keera Wallace (19:39.1) was seventh.
Fillmore missed advancing to the finals on a tiebreaker with Crean Lutheran. Jenna Orozco (20:45.8) and Jacqueline Olivares (22:09.2) were 27th and 38th.
Nordhoff placed 12th in its heat. Irene Quackenbush (23:00.7) was 47th.
Division 5
Thacher had four of the top 30 finishers in its heat and placed second as a team.
Placing 3-5 were Avery Lieb (20:23.2), Julie Lui (20:27.8) and Nell Lieb (20:32.7).
Newbury Park Adventist was 11th in its heat. Jenna Rosaasen (23:47.1) was 33rd.