FRESNO — The look on Shannon Murakami's face said it all.

Saugus High co-head coach Rene Paragas, surrounded by Murakami and her six teammates at the conclusion of the 2006 CIF State Cross Country Division I Championships, made the announcement.

"We won!" Paragas shouted.

The Saugus High girls cross country team reached the pinnacle of prep athletic success as it thundered, one resilient, blue-uniformed Centurion after another, across the finish line Saturday afternoon at Woodward Park in Fresno.

In doing so, the seven young women achieved the dream of every aspiring runner who ever laced up a pair of running shoes.

As those two glorious words from Paragas filtered through the cool Fresno air, the normally calm and collected Murakami fought unsuccessfully to hold back tears.

"I've seen where this team has come from, and to witness this, to be a captain of such a great group of girls, it's just such an overwhelming feeling," Murakami said.

It is the second girls cross country team in the history of the Santa Clarita Valley to take home a state crown — Canyon did it in 1995.

With the victory, the Centurions posted the eighth-fastest time in the history of the California state finals — 93 minutes, 6 seconds.

Their 71 team points put them comfortably ahead of Torrey Pines High of San Diego (94:42), which finished second on the 3.1-mile course with 101. Buchanan High of Clovis (94:59) took third with 137.

Murakami, the 2005 defending state champion, was the first Centurion to cross, finishing fourth overall at 17:52 in a field of 201 competitors. Her time was nine seconds off last year's winning pace.

The UCLA-bound senior said she broke too fast, a departure from her race plan.

"I suffered for my mistake," she said.

If co-captain Katie Dunn was suffering, it was from the pain she endured in her knees and hips as she willed her way to 15th overall in a time of 18:27.

Saugus co-head coach Christian Standley said Dunn competed Saturday in an almost Zen-like state that allowed her to shut out the pain and deal with the task at hand.

"She's always been able to put everything else out of her mind," Standley said. "Physically, she has a tremendous amount of pain she has to deal with — every race, every workout. If she thought about it, she wouldn't be running."

Shannon Murakami's freshman sister, Amber, crossed in 25th overall at 18:48, one second ahead of sophomore Brianna Jauregui, who finished in 26th place.

Jauregui's game plan was to run with Centurion sophomore Keri Molt.

"I was going to stay with Keri, but I ended up just going," Jauregui said. "It was really nice to just catch up to (Amber), and knowing that I can stay with her and she can help me, it just pushed me to the finish."

Molt brought home the mail for Saugus, running 38th overall in a time of 19:10 to lock up her team's title.

During the award ceremony, Paragas called Molt "the toughest girl I've ever met."

Standley said Molt doesn't look or act like a stereotypical distance runner.

"I think that tells you a lot about the program we've been able to put together," Standley said. "We're bringing on girls from all walks of life who've done other sports. We've put them all together, and I think that's what a team is — a lot of different people working towards a single cause."

Juniors Toccoa Kahovec and Alyssa Vaziri were an integral part of that cause.

Kahovec ran 93rd overall in a time of 19:52. She said her race strategy was to go out easy in the first mile and then give it absolutely everything she had.

How did Kahovec know she accomplished that objective by the time she came through the chute?

"I thought I was going to throw up on the girl's shoes in front of me," said Kahovec, with a wide grin.

Vaziri ran through a late-season hip injury to finish 139th overall at 20:37, two minutes ahead of the personal record she set at Woodward Park as a freshman.

The team has improved steadily since Shannon Murakami came aboard as a freshman in 2003. The Centurions ran 16th overall at the CIF-Southern Section Finals that year, followed by finishes of 10th in 2004 and third last year before they took the section title Nov. 18.

Saugus coach Cal Linam called this year's version a resilient, tough, talented group of kids.

"We were lucky enough that some real marines came our way," Linam said.

After the race, Standley said he felt a sense of relief.

"I think the sweetness of it all will sink in soon, in the days and weeks to come," he said.

Saugus will lose just one senior — Shannon Murakami — to graduation. As such, it seems easy to draw the conclusion that this group is a dynasty in the making.

Jauregui and the younger Murakami, the only members of the Saugus team without any state experience until Saturday, ran with the confidence of seasoned veterans.

"I think in those two, you see the future of the program," Standley said. "This is really just the beginning."

Courtesy The-Signal Newspaper