Cougars have benefited from freshmen Combe and Reinhold supporting Alfred, Miura and Siana to help program elevate from 13th last year at Division 1 section final to championship contender, potential NXN qualifer under Carrell’s guidance

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

It’s hard to take things one step at a time when you can leap so high.

Such is the case with the Rancho Cucamonga High girls cross country program, which is enjoying true team success for the first time this year. And the Cougars are showing each week their potential is for much more.

“Our top five is pretty much all underclassmen, so we still have next year and this is actually making history,” sophomore Nicole Alfred said. “We are making history. We never won league and just last week we won league for the first time for the girls, which is super exciting. And that just creates a domino effect where we’re going to keep going and hopefully the freshmen that come after, we just continue that.”

COACH LIZETTE CARRELL INTERVIEW | NICOLE ALFRED INTERVIEW | BRAELYN COMBE INTERVIEW

There's a lot to chew on for the Cougars, but first, they will try to bring home their first CIF Southern Section championship at 9:05 a.m. PST Saturday when they race in the Division 1 final at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut.

Rancho Cucamonga is ranked 17th in the latest Dyestat national high school girls team rankings, behind only Clovis Buchanan (No. 3), Los Altos (No. 13) and JSerra (No. 15) in California.

As they chase a section crown, they’re also looking for their first berth as a team into the following week’s state championships and could be in the conversation for a berth to compete Dec. 3 at Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Ore.

All this from a team that finished just 13th at last year’s section championship meet.

But a lot has changed in a year.

An infusion of young talent has catapulted the Cougars, with freshmen Braelyn Combe and Malia Reinhold bolstering the lineup.

They’ve joined returning individual state-meet qualifier Alfred, who placed 51st in Division 1 at last year’s state meet in 18 minutes, 56 seconds. Juniors Madilyn Siana and Jaden Miura would be considered the veterans of the group.

The future is indeed bright.

Rancho Cucamonga opened in 1992 as the city’s third high school after Alta Loma and Etiwanda.

Terry Tierney was there from the beginning as the school’s cross country coach and has led the boys team to state and section success multiple times.

Though the girls program produced Olympian middle-distance runner Brenda Martinez in the mid-2000s, they’ve never made it to the state meet as a team.

But after nearly 30 years, Tierney said he has been looking for help.

So when he coaxed former Colony and Cal Poly Pomona standout Lizette Carrell to coach last track season after four years as head cross country coach at Chaffey, the building blocks were set.

Alfred credits her addition as girls head coach to sparking the Cougars.

Carrell also leans on Tierney as a mentor.

“It’s meant everything to me,” Carrell said. “He honestly helped me through this season. He’s someone that I go to and ask questions and get his opinion. It’s meant a lot to me that he’s trusted me to take over the girls team.”

Coaching the Cougars has become a two-front approach with their success. The first is this season, when the Cougars have established themselves as a state power.

The second is making Rancho Cucamonga as a perennial state-title contender, even beyond the graduation of this group of freshmen.

“That has been a challenge, just kind of keeping them grounded,” Carrell said. “Like when they won the sweepstakes here at Mt. SAC; it’s a big thing. It’s a big accomplishment. But just reminding them, ‘Hey, there was something that we could have done better. What could we have done better? And reminding them that, ‘OK, now this is the next step we should take.’ Just trying to keep them humble and grounded is our main priority now.”

So far, the Cougars have done just that.

“They’re handling it, honestly, better than I think I would have at their age,” Carrell said. “I’m extremely proud of them.”

Rancho Cucamonga first served notice this year with a ninth-place finish Sept. 16 in the 41st Woodbridge Cross Country Classic girls team sweepstakes race with a race-best 23-second spread.

Next was a second-place showing at the Nike Portland XC meet Sept. 24 at Blue Lake Regional Park on the Columbia River shore, where the only team that beat the Cougars was nationally ranked Summit from Bend, Ore.

They placed all five scorers in the top 10 at the Inland Empire Challenge on Oct. 15 at Cucamonga-Guasti Regional Park in a 76-point win over Corona Santiago.

Then came the Mt. SAC girls sweepstakes, and a statement victory over perennial power Great Oak, 38-93. Again, all five scorers were in the top 10, with Siana finishing fourth in 17:54 and Alfred sixth in 18:10.

A Baseline League championship followed, including the league’s individual title for Alfred, and then an impressive victory in last week’s CIF-Southern Section Division 1 prelims meet to set up Saturday’s final. Alfred, the heat winner, Combe, Reinhold and Miura all placed in the top six.

The in-team competition, Combe said, helps solidify the lineup.

“I wanted to be first and Nicole also wanted to be first,” Combe said. “That drive is what pushes each other and that’s how we’re getting better.”

Carrell said that togetherness has been the biggest boon. At Mt. SAC, for example, the Cougars’ five-man gap was just 29 seconds, the lowest of any team in the field.

At the section prelims, Siana was held for rest and seniors Renee Du and Delanie Goyette stepped in with ease. Senior Natalie Esquibel has also stepped into the lineup when needed.

“How well they run together,” Carrell said, when asked what about her team has been a pleasant surprise. “Going into the summer, we didn’t really know where we were going to stand. We got these two amazing freshmen that came in, and, after their first race and especially at Woodbridge, we just kind of saw how well they did.”

Catching reigning Division 1 state champion Buchanan or earning a possible NXN berth is another level entirely. But no matter what happens, the start of something special could be brewing in the Inland Empire.

“They’re making history at our school,” Carrell said.