But the outstanding Willow Glen running tandem of Mohamed Abdalla and Marcos Corona obviously saved their best for last.

As cliché as it may sound, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going." And for high school cross country runners, the going doesn't get any tougher than the state meet.

Still, Abdalla and Corona ran tough enough at Fresno's Woodward Park on Nov. 26 to nail top 10 finishes in the state Division III finals.

For Abdalla, it was a solid finish to a brilliant sophomore season. The talented Ram runner raced to an eighth-place finish in 15:53, which surprisingly enough was six places better than he had finished at the CCS finals.

Ben Sitler of St. Francis, the CCS champion, was second in 15:29 at the state meet, finishing 25 seconds off the winning pace set by Michael Coe of Cabrillo.

Abdalla, though, put all of the rest of the CCS finishers--many who had beaten him at the section meet--behind him to get eighth overall, even outrunning teammate Corona to the finish line.

Corona, second to Sitler at CCS, finished a strong 10th in 15:55 to complete a sensational junior year for the Rams.

Abdalla and Corona were the only underclassmen among the top 14 finishers at the state meet. Abdalla was the first sophomore finisher in the race and Corona was the top junior.

The two young superstars helped the Rams to a team fifth at state. Barstow was first with 80 points followed by Cabrillo (117), St. Ignatius (161), St. Francis (167), Willow Glen (203) and Campolindo (210). The Rams had finished third behind St. Francis and SI at the CCS meet. There were 23 teams in the field.

Senior Robert Ramos was 52nd in 16:36 for the Rams in the 195-runner field at Woodward Park on Saturday. Junior Justin McArthur was 73rd in 16:47 with senior Ruben Camacho 121st in 17:32, junior Daniel Diaz 170th in 18:13 and junior Samson Galato 171st in 18:13.

The top 10 efforts for Abdalla and Corona capped an outstanding year. The pair had finished one-two at the league finals to lead the Rams to the team title in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. Abdalla was the league champ, covering the 2.95-mile course at Crystal Springs in Belmont in 15:29, with Corona second in 15:52.

Corona bettered his Crystal Springs time by 22 seconds a week later to finish second to Sitler at the CCS finals, running 15:30. Abdalla fell off his pace to finish 14th in 16:24.

Both Abdalla and Corona bettered their 2004 state performances at the meet last weekend. Abdalla had run 16:03 to get 17th in Division III last year and Corona was 22nd in 16:06. Abdalla cut his time by 10 seconds and Corona was 11 seconds better this year than he was a year ago.

In other state action, the Presentation girls finished 16th in Division III when senior Kathleen Dazzi and junior Katie Wallace leading the effort for the Panthers.

Dazzi was 59th in 19:49 with Wallace a second back in 60th in 19:50. Freshmen Rebekah Phillips and Christina Lee also finished strong for the Panthers, Phillips getting 123rd in 20:48 and Lee nailing 131st in 20:59 in their first state meet.

Sophomore Jordan Fillmore ran 21:34, junior Lauren Ruiz 21:47 and soph Jennifer Chau 21:52.