RIVERSIDE — Woodcrest Christian senior Eyan Turk had already won a CIF State Cross Country title as a junior, but he had one thing to cross off his high school cross country bucket list: make the Nike Cross Nationals by getting one of the top five individual times at state among non-qualifying teams.
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Turk not only accomplished his goal, but he had the top time among all divisions at state, capping off another outstanding season that earned him a third straight IE Varsity Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year honor.
“It’s still hitting me with all the hard work and effort that led up to that race,” Turk said. “It wasn’t just the time, but the execution and plan was perfect in every way. There’s nothing I can think of that I could do better.”
Turk won the Division V race with a time of 14:32.5, which was not only a Division V state meet record, it was the seventh-best time ever at the state meet on Fresno’s Woodward Park course.
“I feel like I’ve been a mature runner (this year),” Turk said. “I’m mentally stronger.”
It was a perfect storm of conditions (it was the last race of the day), competition (it was the strongest Division V race ever), and Turk’s will and desire, not to mention his health which was not 100 percent the week before.
“There’s not that many times that Eyan has that (competition) in a Division V race,” said Woodcrest Christian coach Eric Reynolds, who has worked with Turk since he was in the fourth grade. “CIF Prelims (two weeks prior) was a tempo run. I would even say for the finals race when he wasn’t feeling well, he only did enough to win that race. If we needed to, we could push it, but there was no need to. The idea was ‘let’s conserve as much as we can.’”
Conserving energy paid off. At the mile and 2.1-mile marks, three runners, Turk, Menlo’s Landon Pretre, and Crystal Springs Uplands’ Benjamin Bouie, were within a second of each other. But in that last mile, Turk pulled away, while Pretre (14:38.8) and Bouie (14:54.5) were second and third, respectively. All three times broke the previous Division V record of 14:59.
“He knew with a mile to go he was going to make it (to NXN),” Reynolds said. “Once I saw him get a little bit of separation, I knew he was going to win that race. I never expected that last mile to be what it was.”
Turk ran his last mile in 4:27, which was 16 seconds faster than he ran his first mile.
Turk’s perfect race got him to NXN, where he didn’t have the perfect race.
“He was fifth at the mile mark, and finished 18th after taking a rough fall,” Reynolds said. “Before (the fall) he looked so good, I think he’s going to win this stupid thing. His state race was his best race. But the race I was most proud of was his following race (NXN).”
“It was a bummer slipping on mud. I fell. I was spiked on my hand. I had to work hard to finish,” Turk said.
Turk ran 12 races in the season and won 10, losing only at NXN and in the sweepstakes race of the Woodbridge Invitational, where he finished ninth, although he was second among California runners in the race.
Turk will have the spring track season before he enters the next chapter of his career at the University of Kentucky.
“If I told my younger self (about the accomplishments), it would be a dream,” Turk said. “It would be so unbelievable. But at the same time it would be good news that If I can keep what I’m doing, and trust in the Lord, all is possible.”
IE VARSITY COACH OF THE YEAR
Tony DiMarco, Ayala
The Ayala boys were in the process of having perhaps their best season ever. The Bulldogs were ranked No. 1 in the CIF Southern Section in Division 2, seeking to win their first CIF-SS team title since 1992, and were ranked No. 2 in the state in the division just ahead of Palomares League rival Glendora. But Ayala never got a chance to win that state title. After CIF-SS Prelims, it was discovered that Ayala (not DiMarco) had misreported its enrollment figures and should have been placed in Division 1 instead. Ayala was disqualified from CIF competition as a result. But it didn’t take away from how good the team was this season. Even after they were disqualified, Ayala was ranked No. 7 in CIF-SS Division 1 and No. 9 in the state, led by freshman Bryson Caganap and senior Jacob Facenda.
IE VARSITY FIRST TEAM
Jacob Brown, Great Oak, Sr.
Bryson Caganap, Ayala, Fr.
Micah Chandler, Riverside Poly, Sr.
Brandon Fonseca, Santiago, Sr.
Nolan Koopman, Rancho Cucamonga, Sr.
Luke Lopez., Roosevelt, Jr.
Lyle Medeiros, Claremont, Jr.
Evan Nahuat, Valley View, Jr.
Jack Paradise, Great Oak, Sr.
Owen Teague, Hemet, Sr.
Eyan Turk, Woodcrest Christian, Sr.
Maximo Zavaleta, King, Jr.
IE VARSITY SECOND TEAM
Baraa Abufarha, Beaumont, Sr.
Jacob Facenda, Ayala, Sr.
Marco Franco, Great Oak, Jr.
Christian Gump, Great Oak, Sr.
Kael Jex,, Big Bear, Sr.
Jace Lay, Santiago, Sr.
Michael Ortega, Ontario, Jr.
Brad Quezada, King, Jr.
Daniel Reza, Chaffey, Sr.
Frank Rodriguez, Redlands East Valley, Sr.
Abraham Sanchez, Perris, So.
Owen Weems, Riverside Poly, Sr.
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