Arrowhead Christian teams, Citrus Valley star Castaneds reach cross-country finals

On a cloudy, damp and cool Friday at the CIF Southern Section cross-country preliminaries, the boys and girls’ teams from Arrowhead Christian Academy both advanced to the Division 5 Southern Section finals, to be held Saturday.

Meanwhile, Citrus Valley High’s lone competitor in the Division 2 prelims, Alyssa Castaneda, made the finals with a fifth-place finish in her heat of the 3-mile run at Mt. San Antonio College.

Castaneda, the 2025 Citrus Belt League champion, was timed in 18:10.3.

The section prelims for Divisions 1, 3 and 4 will take place on Saturday morning. Runners from the Citrus Belt League teams will be competing.

ACA’s boys team earned 117 points with three runners in the top 25 to advance to the finals, which will also take place at Mt. SAC.

Micah Slagter led the way with a 5th-place finish in 15:59.3, followed by sophomore Benjamin Sams, who placed 14th overall in a personal best of 16:35.4.

Elijah Talamantez wound up 22nd in 17:14.6 followed by Anthony Neccochea, 35th in 17:50.2 and Mac Frank, 41st in 18:04.4.

Sophomore Leah Slagter led ACA’s girls’ team to a third-place finish in the team scoring with 80 points. She finished second in 18:37.8.

Madelyn Arjonilla was 7th in 20:14.7. Senior Eva Marquez was 20th in 21:56.0. Freshman Payton Wolfe was 22nd in 22:05.3 and freshman Grace Price was 29th in 22:30.7.

In other action Friday involving Redlands-based boys teams, Redlands Adventist Academy finished a non-qualifying 10th in its heat of the Division 5 boys 3-mile run.

Aidan Calhoun was 31st in 17:32.0.

Andrew Karpenko was 55th in 18:48.2.

Carrick Bartley, a junior, competed for The Grove School of Redlands, finishing 67th overall in his D5 heat, timed in 20:04.2.

In the girls Division 5, The Grove School placed a non-qualifying 12th in the Heat 1 with 316 points. Anna Staack, a sophomore finished 16th in the field with a time of 20:49.7. Freshman Gwen Von Pingel was 61st in 24:21.o.

In Heat 2, Packinghouse Christian of Redlands placed ninth with 246 points. Jayden Brauernfeind was 23rd in 22:13.9 while senior Molly Brazfield was 44th in 24:16.7. Packinghouse did not advance to the finals.

Redlands Adventist Academy girls placed 11th in Heat 3 with 262 points and did not advance.

Giselle Umali, a sophomore, placed 34th in 22:05.7 while Grace Hayton, a senior, was 49th in 23:34.8. Zara Mathew, a freshman, was 50th in 23:35.0.