The Boys Cross Country Team competed in the CIF Championship and then the State Championship after a great performance in their first race. They made school history as the first state champions in cross country in our school’s history. 

Andreas Dybdahl led them with an individual win in the CIF race, as he beat out Ventura’s Anthony Fast Horse towards the end of the race finishing with a time of 14:04.5. As a team, everybody ran a personal best time. Following Dybdahl was Blaise Snow (14th, 14:38), then Cainan Birchim (17th, 14:44), Bode Andrulaitis (32nd, 15:03), Nico Tassos (34th, 15:05), Sasha Tanasychuk (48th, 15:19) and Benjamin Diaz (52nd, 15:23). 

Photo Courtesy of @sbdonsxctf Instagram

Andreas and Blaise (both pictured above) were awarded with individual awards for their performances in the CIF race. When asked about the team’s preparation for such a big event, Dybdahl said, “ Leading up to the State Championships, my team and I knew that we had a shot at winning. We had been training all season long for this race, and we were all in shape and ready to put everything together. We mentally prepared for the race with a lot of course visualization. ”

As a team, the Dons were in sixth place at the first-mile mark, then moved their way up to second at the two-mile mark just like many other races before pulling away with the first-place finish by the final mile.

In the state race finals race, the Dons put together a flawless performance. The Dons team score of 91 was 23 points better than any other team, as Ventura came in second place at 114 and Newbury Park barely was bested by Ventura at 115.

The Dons pose in a celebratory manor after a CIF State championship win

Photo Courtesy of @sbdonsxctf Instagram

Andreas Dybdahl has led the way for Santa Barbara High in every race this season and nothing changed in this final race. This time, he came in second place individually in the division, with a time of 15:05.3. He finished behind only Aydon Stefanopoulos out of Los Gatos. Cainan Birchim and Blaise Snow both put together a top 25 performance as Cainan came in 12th place with a time of 15:31 and Blaise came in 22nd place in 15:38. The Dons had all seven racers come in the top 120 out of 200 runners.

Nico Tassos came in 50th with a time of 16:01.  Bode Andrulaitis came in 53rd with a time of 16:04. Benjamin Diaz came in 93rd with a time of 16:32. Rounding out the Dons top 7 was Oleksandr Tanasychuk who came in 117th with a time of 16:45.