This is from Correspondent Kirby Lee. The Breeze apologizes for not getting it into the print edition, but it's here on the blog in its entirety:
By Kirby Lee
WOODLAND HILLS - David Rosales couldn't have asked for more vocal support from his older brother Pablo Rosales during the L.A. City Section cross country preliminaries at Pierce College on Thursday.
The San Pedro High sophomore, though, would have preferred to have his sibling running by his side.
With Pablo sidelined by an eye infection, David Rosales persevered to finish sixth in his heat in 16:34 over the 2.87-mile course to help San Pedro finish third and qualify for the finals at Pierce College on Nov. 22.
"He is the one that paces the whole group and I just follow right behind him," David said about his brother. "Since he wasn't here, it was pretty tough. It's different because he is the one that motivates me to move along faster."
In last year's City finals, Pablo finished third and David was ninth to help San Pedro place second to earn a berth in the state championships. The brothers finished 1-2 in the Marine League finals last week to help San Pedro to the team title.
Pablo, however, irritated his left eye during the league finals at Peck Park and exasperated the condition run on the dusty trails of Pierce College on Saturday workout. He missed three days of school before returning on Thursday but didn't have medical clearance to run.
"I'd rather not run this week than to miss the finals and hopefully have the team qualify for next week," Pablo said. "I'd be nervous running with out him too."
The brothers run together and share their room where running is the prevailing topic of their
conversations. On Thursday, Pablo perched himself on the crest of the hill on the multi-loop course to offer his support to his brother and his teammates.
"We give each other enough support out there when we're running together but he needs to get used to what it will be in a couple of years when I am not here," Pablo said.
Defending City champion Birmingham of Lake Balboa won the heat with 65 points, followed by El Camino Real of Woodland Hills in second with 71.
San Pedro, which is seeking its fifth section title in seven years, was in third with 107. Narbonne of Harbor City finished fifth with 167 points to qualify.
The top five teams in each of the two heats advanced to the finals. Granada Hills held off Monroe to win the other heat, 51-52.
"It's not what we would have liked but we qualified," San Pedro coach Bruce Thomson said.
"When you're alone and haven't been alone all season, it didn't help David today. I think
everybody had a little come down after league finals. This is qualifying. All you want to do is qualify. I think we'll see a lot better effort from everybody next week."
The San Pedro girls would like to maintain their effort in the finals after winning their heat on
Thursday with the 4-5-7 of sophomore Itzel Ramirez (19:28), senior Maggie Tortoledo
(19:37) and junior Laura Delgado (19:44).
San Pedro totaled 60 points to outdistance runner-up Garfield (90) and Birmingham
(92).
SAN PEDRO RULES.....=D