CROSS COUNTRY: Knight senior takes second at Clovis meet, where Royal's Holland, T.O.'s Joerger excel.

CLOVIS - Bryan Guijarro traveled to C.J. Albertson's home course Saturday at Woodward Park seeking revenge.

What the Knight cross country standout got instead was plenty of added motivation.

Albertson, a Buchanan High senior, relied on an impressive kick in the final 400 meters in the boys' championship race at the 33rd annual Asics/Clovis Invitational to produce his second victory in less than month over Guijarro in a matchup of two of the state's elite runners.

Albertson clocked 15 minutes, 1 second on the 5-kilometer course, with Guijarro covering the layout in a personal-best 15:07, a 21-second improvement from last year's Div. I state final.

"I'm pretty satisfied for right now. I felt like I could've gone faster, but I'm OK with the time. But if I'm running that time again in November, then there's a problem," Guijarro said. "I'm just taking it step by step and hopefully I can beat him by the end."

Albertson relied on the same strong kick Sept. 17 to rally for a four-second win over Guijarro in the Woobridge Invitational sweepstakes race.

The athletes weren't by more than a few steps through the first four kilometers, before Albertson surged on the final straightaway to finish 10 seconds off his junior class record.

"I didn't care about the time, I just wanted to win. The time will come," Albertson said. "After Woodbridge, I had confidence I could outkick him if it came down to that. Judging by his breath when I was running next to him, I felt like I had more left."

Knight coach Gina Peterson viewed the race as another valuable lesson for Guijarro in his pursuit of a Div. I state title.

"The gap was bigger than Woodbridge, but (Bryan) also had a 20-second improvement from last year, so that's encouraging," Peterson said. "This is C.J.'s home course, but having raced him twice already, it's better to learn these things now than at state."

Guijarro led a significant day for some of the Antelope Valley's elite runners, with Quartz Hill's Malik Hayes (15:50) placing fourth in the Div. I race and Desert Christian's Scott Acton (15:52) taking second in the Div. IV race.

Acton, along with Thomas Waters (16:18) taking 15th and Bryan Curtis (16:25) placing 19th, helped the Knights finish second with 104 points, trailing Miramonte of Orinda (84).

Nick Privitelli (16:00) finished fifth for Crespi, which placed seventh with 197 points, one spot behind Flintridge Prep - led by 16th-place Casey Thompson (16:21) - with 182.

Although she was fourth in the girls' championship race in 18:03, Thousand Oaks' Melanie Joerger not only produced the area's fastest time, but enjoyed a 62-second improvement from last year's meet.

Joerger's effort, faster than her goal time of 18:15, helped the Lancers finish fourth with 243 points to build momentum entering Thursday's Marmonte League battle with Simi Valley at Corriganville Park.

"I look at one meet at a time, so now that this race is done, I'll focus on Simi Valley. But I definitely feel more confident after this race," said Joerger, who improved 37 seconds from last year's Div. II state meet.

"When I finished, I thought I could I have gotten three seconds off because you can always go back and find three seconds somewhere in a race. But I also felt pretty done."

The area's lone varsity win came from Royal freshman Brianne Holland in her debut on the state-meet course. Trailing Valencia's Maddie Dignadice (18:35) with less than a mile to go in the Div. I varsity race, Holland sprinted to the finish to prevail in 18:31.

"My strategy was just to stay with the top five and then see what happens after the first mile," Holland said. "Then I wanted to go for the first and second place girls, whoever was there at the end."

Dignadice improved by a minute from last year to hold off San Clemente's Molly Mann (18:36) for second.

"I felt like I just had to keep running. I heard people telling Molly to run until she was dead tired, so I decided I was going to run until I was dead tired too," said Dignadice, who led third-place Valencia (114).

"I'm so happy with this. I held on to my second place, which is more of an accomplishment to me. Overall, it was a really great race. (Brianne) just got me in the last 400."

Valencia's Arianna Michaels (18:55) was eighth, Royal's Sophie Mateu (19:08) placed ninth, Highland's Vanessa Lopez (19:13) took 12th with teammate Annie Radigan (19:10) finishing 18th.

Crescenta Valley, relying on a 13th-place effort from Cali King (19:13) and Megan Melnyk finishing 14th (19:14), tied San Clemente for first in the Div. I race with 103 points. But Tritons' sixth runner Sara Kebede finished one step in front of C.V.'s Hayley Witzeman - both clocking 20:09 - to secure the tiebreaker.

C.V.'s Erika Johnson won the frosh/soph race in 19:33.

Thousand Oaks' Sam Worley (15:58) was 27th in the boys' championship race, followed by Austin O'Neil (15:59) in 29th, helping Hart finish ninth with 246 points.

Michael Duncan (16:04) was ninth in the Div. I race to help C.V. take third with 179 points.