The Morro Bay High Boys Varsity team gets ready to race at the MBHS Invitational Sept. 12. Photos by Neil Farrell
Morro Bay High School hosted some of the best cross country runners in California at the 2026 Morro Bay Invitational Meet, held Sept. 12 at the high school.
And while no Pirate runners managed to win any of the races, one of the varsity boys came close, and the girls Varsity squad finished a very respectable second in team scoring in the 2.75-mile Girls Small School race.
That race was won by McFarland High’s Jennifer Diaz in 18-minutes, 15.6-seconds, with Bella Tomasini of Atascadero High second in 18:22.9. The race had 98 runners entered and all of them finished.
Morro Bay senior Wendy Wilson led the way for the Pirates taking fifth place in 19:21.8. She was followed by a close trio of MBHS runners as Abigail Bautista took 16th (20:43.3); Shelby Taylor was 17th (20:43.6); and Sophia Waldman 18th in 20:44.8.
Lilith Buller was the fifth runner for Morro Bay coming in 36th in 22:12.17; and Isabel Gomez also ran for the team finishing 47th in 23:43.4.
Teams scores saw McFarland win with 62 points and Morro Bay was second with 81. SLO High School was third with 85; Atascadero fourth with 126 and Templeton took fifth with 130.
Of note in the Girls Large School Race, defending Div. 2 State Champion and 2025 MBHS Invitational champion, Isabella Vasquez of El Diamonte HS ran away with another first-place finish clocking 17:58.3 and besting her rival, Teagen Bivena of Los Osos HS, who finished in 18:11.3.
The two also finished one-two in last year’s State Championships, as well as the MBHS Invitational. Both were shoulder-to-shoulder throughout most of the race, including the path through the tunnel of trees, and through the loose sand on Morro Strand Beach. But Vasquez eventually pulled away as they returned to campus via the paved bike path parallel to Hwy 1 at about the 2-mile mark. Though both finished strong, Vasquez won by about 30 yards.
In the Boys Small School Varsity race, Morro Bay’s Abe Gade finished second in 15:36.8 just a few seconds behind race winner Christian Hoover of Central HS in 15:30.7.
Third went to SLOHS’ Rudy Uribe (15:44.6) and he was closely followed by teammates Gavin Wells (15:56.6) and Kaden Gearhart (15:58.3) who were fourth and fifth respectively.
Morro Bay’s other runners were: Oliver Zalta (12th, 16:48.8); Hunter Torlano (36th, 17:45.0); Cameron D’Aundy (39th, 18:00.5); and, Joseph Beard (74th, 19:13.3).
SLOHS won the team score registering just 35 points (lowest score wins in cross country) with Lompoc second with 96. Santa Ynez was third with 107 and Morro Bay fourth with 143. Atascadero took fifth with 215 and mighty McFarland was sixth with 224.
In the Boys Small School junior varsity race, McFarland’s Fabian Abundis edged out SLOHS’ Colin Heying by a tenth of a second — 16:37.4 to 16:37.5 — in the closest finish of the day.
Frankie Sullivan of SLOHS was third (17:06.7) and Halen Powell of Templeton was fourth (17:15.7).
Of note, Coast Union’s Jayden Brannon took 13th in 18:22.7 and his teammate Josh Johnson was 45th in 19:31.2.
Morro Bay’s first finisher was Nico Woollaston (25th, 18:47.2). MBHS’ Eli Collins (54th, 18:47.4) and Tev Perkin (58th, 20:03.6) also ran the race.
SLOHS took the team title with 48 points and McFarland was second with 72. Highland was third (73), Coalinga fourth (149) and Coast Union was sixth with 191. Morro Bay took eighth with 198.
In the Girls Small School JV race, Lompoc’s Valentina Diaz was first in 20:12.01 with Kaysie Wong of Fowler second in 20:56.5.
Coast Union’s Natalie Edwards finished ninth in 21:35.9, and her teammate, Ava Edmonds was 30th in 23:55.4. Morro Bay High’s Megan Phipps was 98th.
In team scoring McFarland scored just 28 points to win. The lowest possible score in cross country is 15 (finishing 1-2-3-4-5). Highland took second with 65 and SLOHS was third with 72.
The meet also had 1.64-mile boys and girls middle school races with kids from Los Osos and Laguna Middle Schools participating.
The boys race had 110 runners and saw two runners from Kastner Intermediate go 1-2 as Bodie Ellard was first in 9:04.6 and Navid Guzman second in 9:37.7.
Laguna MS’ Nicholas Uribe was fourth in 10:06.9. LOMS’ Ian Clansy was 20th in 11:04.1 with Laguna’s Duncan Brown close behind in 21st at 10:06.7.
Miles Casey of LOMS was 41st in 11:48.7
In the Girl’s Middle School Race Kastner took the top four spots with Sophia Owens first, Madison Crandall second, Kunz Liv third and Aria Guerrero fourth.
LOMS’ Sierra Pascual was fifth (11:22.8), spoiling Kastner’s shot at a sweep.
But Kastner’s Faith Vargas was fifth, so the school from Fresno almost scored the extremely-rare sweep, taking five of the Top-6 spots.
Other high finishers included Laguna’s Avery Laurie in 12th and Magnolia Sullivan in 14th.
