Attarian, a senior, won the Division III boys race by 20 seconds and became only the fourth athlete in NCS championship meet history to break 15 minutes on the Hayward High course, with a time of 14 minutes, 51 seconds.
Lillig, a sophomore, held off defending Division I girls champion Alycia Cridebring of College Park and won by a scant second with a time of 17:54.
Castro Valley's Jack Leng notched an individual title in the Division I boys race with a time of 15:04. Monte Vista won the team title with 66 points, getting one of two automatic team bids in that race to the state championships on Saturday in Fresno.
The Mustangs placed five runners in the top 20, with only 35 seconds between the first and fifth runners. Bhavik Kanzaria led the Mustangs with a fourth-place finish in 15:24, followed by Mike Roderick (ninth, 15:44), Harry Nunns (14th, 15:53), Dustin Harris (19th, 15:59) and Danny Bartz (20th, 15:59).
Castro Valley won the Division I girls team title with 52 points. Chelsea Schneider led the Trojans with a fifth-place finish in 18:46, followed by Kelsey Santisteban (sixth, 18:47), Pam MacLeod (seventh, 18:49), Nicole Yang (11th, 19:08) and Gabrielle White (23rd, 19:52).
In the Division III boys race, Attarian moved into the lead in the second mile, held a three-second edge over Nate Beach of Acalanes at the two-mile point with a split of 9:56, and lengthened the lead in the final mile.
"I'm pretty excited. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted to come out here and break 15," said Attarian, who tied the NCS Division III championship mark for the course set by Redwood's Jake Schmitt in 2004.
Lillig put herself in contention early, crossing the mile mark in second place and trailing leader Jasmine Cox of Deer Valley by only three seconds. She took the lead on a flat portion of the second mile and held an eight-second advantage over the second-place Cridebring at the two-mile mark.
But Cridebring closed the gap to four seconds at the start of the final hill, and as Lillig sprinted down the flat final straightaway, Cridebring charged right behind her. Cridebring took a quick look back in the final yards and leaned at the line. A second later, she raised her arms in victory.
"When I saw her in my peripheral vision, I said 'I've got to go.' She's a great competitor. I can't believe I did that," said an astonished Lillig. "That's like definitely the race of my life."
Leng also was involved in a battle, in the Division I boys race. He passed through two miles with California's Dmitry Kislyuk, Liberty's Wyatt Landrum and Kanzaria in a strong lead pack. But Leng surged in the next half-mile and held that advantage.
