FRESNO — When Josiah Bowman competed in Division 3, he had a pretty good idea who would be his major rivals.
But when he and the rest of the Sage Creek team bounced down to Division 4 this season, he wasn’t sure who he needed to beat.
It turns out he didn’t have to look very far. Right up the road, actually.
Bowman, who is headed to UCLA, assumed control of the Division 4 state championships midway through Saturday’s 3.1-mile race at Woodward Park and slowly pulled away to win in 15 minutes, 3.4 seconds.
Less than seven seconds back was Classical Academy’s Gunner Silva in 15:10.0.
“We raced at CIF (the section championships) and went 1-2, so it was no surprise that he was second here,” said Bowman. “He hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, and I know he thought he was the underdog.
“Those are the kind of runners you have to look out for.”
Bowman said the major difference between this year and last, when he placed 13th, wasn’t so much dropping down a division as being fully prepared.
“I’ve run this course for four years, so I know it well,” he said. “Coach (Jason Jacobson) has worked me every year after I decided to run cross country as a freshman. But I considered myself a track runner (where he clocked a 1:50.39 for 800 meters last spring). He finally got it across to me that sometimes your brain tells you you’re too tired or you don’t feel well even though physically there’s nothing wrong.
“That’s the approach I took today. I let my body control my brain. Usually, my mentality is mydownfall, but this time I refused to let that happen. I wasn’t that nervous at the start and I felt in control, so that after the hill and the 2-mile mark, I just took off.
“No one stayed with me, so it worked out well. And San Diego went 1-2!”
Not only that, with Bowman’s first-place finish leading the way, the Bobcats also finished 11th (Max Marchi) and 14th (Grant Beasley) en route to a second-place team finish. The Bobcats finished with 69 points, just 10 behind champion San Juan Capistrano JSerra.
Bowman is the first-ever section boys Division 4 champion, and as it turned out, even if he hadn’t been in the race, Silva would have won after he edged Oak Christian’s Vin Krueger for second place.
Other top-10 finishers from San Diego included Poway’s Cooper Castleberry, who placed sixth in Division 1 at 14:59.2; Cathedral Catholic’s Nathan Wilber, who finished eighth in Division 3 at 15:13.2; and Mt. Carmel’s Jaxon Northcutt, who finished 10th in Division 2 at 15:01.4.