Cross Country: Off & Running

Once again, a local coach has stepped up and offered to help give insight to what's going on in cross country. This comes from Glendora assistant coach Bob Ramsey

Woodbridge Invitational: Ten Tribune Area schools competed in the huge Woodbridge Invitational. The meet, hosting over 200 schools and 8,700 athletes, was held over a reconfigured flat, three mile course that proved to be about 15-20 seconds slower than the previous version. The Glendora boys took top honors with a fifth place finish in the Varsity Rated Race, while CIF-SS D-III 6th ranked St. Lucy's finished 13th in the girls heat of that race. The remaining area schools were Bassett, Bishop Amat, Bonita, Covina, Damien, Diamond Bar, Diamond Ranch, and San Dimas.
Younger athletes took center stage this week, Glendora soph Anthony Castro led the boys - his 15:24 was good for 16th in the Varsity Rated Race, 10th among sophomores, and 72nd overall. Tartan senior Corey Bullock's 15:30 placed him 20th in his race and 88th overall. St. Lucy's 9th grader Katy Hebb, continued to lead the girls. Her 18:14 placed her 16th as well in the Varsity Rated Race, while she was fifth among frosh and 70th overall. Heather Jackson (Soph - Bonita) opened her season with a fine 18:20, good for 83rd overall

South El Monte's Jayson Perez the big winner at Rosemead.

Rosemead Invitational: Eleven area schools went head to head among the thirty-two teams that competed at the Rosemead Invitational, held under the lights on a flat, construction shortened 2.8 mile course. The host school was joined by Arroyo, Duarte, El Monte, La Puente, Rowland, South El Monte, South Hills, West Covina, Western Christian and Wilson. The top individual performance came from Jayson Perez (Junior - South El Monte) started his season with a dominating 16 second win in both his heat and overall. Rosemead's Brittnie Munoz was second overall while finishing first in the junior race.

Rankings: In this week's CIF-SS Rankings, St. Lucy's moved from 6th to 7th and South Hills from 2nd to 9th in girls Div III, while the Glendora boys entered the rankings at 9th in Div II and Div V Western Christian remained 6th.

Up next: The focus moves to the Sunny Hills Invite at Craig Park in Fullerton, where eight SGV schools will compete in a field of 38. A few will be traveling to the prestigious Stanford Invitational, and others will be at the Bell-Jeff Invite at Griffith Park and the Dana Hills Invitational.

For more local results including times and finishes of our best local runners, click thread