LOOMIS — Alissa Hood is confident that a year of experience is all the Del Oro High girls cross country team lacked in falling four places short of a top-10 finish at the CIF State Cross Country Championships last fall.

The junior, who finished 44th overall at the 2008 meet to pace the Golden Eagles, is eager about her squad’s second shot at that goal Saturday at Fresno’s Woodward Park.

“Last year was definitely a disappointment,” Hood said. “Individually we had some good races, but it was disappointing for the team. We’re not letting last year get us down, though. We’re faster, healthier and more mentally prepared.”

Del Oro’s varsity girls are enjoying one of their best seasons this decade. They won their third straight title at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III championships earlier this month, the second time in school history the Eagles have accomplished the three-peat and first since 1992-1994.

In the race, Del Oro junior Emma Freeman battled Placer senior and defending champion Shannon Harcus for the lead with a quarter-mile left, edging the Hillgals’ star by one second to take the individual title.

“Emma should do really well at state,” said second-year coach Kevin Ostenberg. “She’s extremely tough and competitive.”

Freeman’s one-second win highlighted a huge day for the Eagles, who showcased the talent waiting in the wings. Del Oro also won section championships with their JV girls, JV boys, frosh/soph girls and freshman boys teams in Folsom.

“We’re getting a lot of kids coming out and they’re all recruiting more,” Ostenberg said. “It’s the power of the group.”

Freeman is one of the most experienced Loomis runners who will hit the trail this weekend. She and fellow junior Caitlyn Devitt-Payne are both making their third appearance at the state meet. Hood, Alexa Lua and Jessie Rozario are also familiar with the course. Junior Desiree Bacchi is the team’s only state newcomer.

“The beginning of the season was kind of rough, because there was some sickness and some injuries,” Hood said. “The whole season just came together last Saturday (at the section meet), so we’re looking forward to a really good race at state.”

Del Oro senior Toby Uptain-Villa, who ran a course-personal-best 17:20 to place 10th overall in the varsity boys Division III section race, will join the girls team and race as an individual. The Del Oro boys missed qualifying their team by one place.

“I’m pretty confident and excited to see what I can do from a year more training,” said Uptain-Villa, who ran 17:22 to finish in the middle of the pack at his first state meet last year. “It will be a lot more difficult not having my team there. Hopefully I’ll see some familiar faces from Placer and El Camino. Other than that you’re just trying to hold your own.”

Uptain-Villa is aiming to finish the course in 16:30. Although he’ll be the only Del Oro athlete in the race, teammate Trevor Rollins is accompanying the group to Fresno and will warm up with Uptain-Villa in an effort to keep things routine.

“It’s difficult to run without your team but Toby’s pretty fit,” Ostenberg said. “He ran real well last week and this week. We’re going to try to be faster than last year just to show improvement, but the race is what it is. You train hard, then you hope for the best when you get to this point.”