Sage Hill set to make run

Steve Virgen

Sage Hill School boys cross country coach Nate Miller has three

reasons why the Lightning will jump from their fourth-place finish

last year in the Academy League to become a viable championship

contender this season.

The three reasons? Chris Chiboucas, Mike Voge and Zach Chandy.

“I expect those three to be the leaders of our team,” said Miller.

“We missed qualifying for CIF by three points last year. I think we

will be very competitive. St. Margaret’s has a lot of returning

runners and they are expected to win, but we’ll make a run at the

title. We are capable. If we can keep everyone healthy, we can

definitely challenge in the league.”

Chandy, a sophomore, and Chiboucas, a senior, earned second-team

all-league honors for the Lightning last year. Chandy broke his leg

at the beginning of the track and field season, but is back to full

strength and, “looks great,” Miller said. Chiboucas plans to be the

leader of the group, as he took on that role last year when the team

had no seniors in its first season of varsity competition.

“We didn’t lose anyone from last year,” Miller said. “That’s great

to have everyone back and they have that extra year of experience.

It’s still a relatively young team, too. We are going to be a lot

stronger as a team.”

In addition to Chandy and Chiboucas, who is also a soccer player

at the school, the Lightning will feature Voge. The Sage Hill junior

experienced some injuries last year, but at times he was the

Lightning’s No. 1 runner last year.

Sage Hill’s talented trio has been setting a standard to be

followed for years to come and the three runners have also been

pushing one another.

“Zach is an outstanding athlete,” Miller said. “Chris was the No.

1 throughout the season last year and Mike Voge was also the No. 1 as

a sophomore. They make for great training partners. They finish

seconds within each other and they’ll be among the top three in all

of our races.”

Sage Hill will also be strengthened by juniors Tristan Cordier and

Eric LaMotte, as well as senior Matt Sanford. Sophomores Tim Lefler,

Nick Gross and Shayne Sanders have shown improvement throughout the

off-season and will also compete on the varsity team. Lefler is

expected to be a consistent scorer for Sage Hill this season.

The Lightning opened their season at the Laguna Hills Invitational

and will compete Saturday