Keeping up with Cross Country
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
Cross Country in Southern California is centered on two courses - the very hilly 2.91 mile course at Mt.SAC, and the rolling 5 kilometer course at Woodward Park in Fresno. Mt. Sac is the site of huge and famous Mt Sac Invitational, and several SGV league finals meets. Most importantly, it is the site of the CIF Southern Section Divisional Prelims and Finals, while Woodward is the site of the California State Championship meet.
This past weekend, twelve Valley schools competed at the San Gabriel Valley Challenge at Mt. Sac, while Arroyo and the Glendora boys traveled north to run in the Clovis Invitational at Woodward Park. The Glendora girls ran in Dos Pueblos Invite at Shoreline Park in Santa Barbara.
For all the results and rankings, click thread
SGV Challenge - A number of SGV runners got their first taste of the famous, and famously touch XC course at Mt. Sac, and Valley teams were well represented making up nearly half the field. Azusa, Baldwin Park, Charter Oak (boys), Covina, Damien, Diamond Bar, Duarte, La Puente, Los Altos, Rowland, St. Lucy's, San Dimas and Walnut took part in this 30 team meet.
Top team honors went to CIF Div III ranked St. Lucy's, who won the meet with a team time of 1:38:29, and second placed Bonita with 1:40:39. Los Altos rounded out the SGV best a 1:44:38 for sixth. Among the boys, the top SGV teams were Los Altos (4th overall - 84:09), Baldwin Park (5th - 85:38), led by senior Paul Nay's 16:45, and Elijah Durian (16:50) led Ganesha (6th - 86:10)
Sergio Rodriguez (Senior/Los Altos) turned in the top Valley performance, finishing 5th overall in a very strong time of 15:42. Rowland senior Johnathan Taylor (16:06) was 9th overall while rapidly improving Damien soph Johnathan Garcia was 13th in 16:20.
The St. Lucy's runners turned an impressive group of fast times, but they were bested by a trio of excellent performances from Priscilla Llanos (soph/Rowland) - 18:51 for 3rd overall, Bonita soph Heather Jackson - 4th with 18:56, and her frosh teammate Shavonn Jackson - 6th in 19:12
Clovis Invitational - Woodward Park and the State Meet are the ultimate goal for a prep XC athlete, and Arroyo and the Glendora boys traveled north to run in this big and prestigious intersectional meet with a field of 161 schools, including most of the ranked teams in the State and the Southern Section
Glendora, ranked 7th last week in the CIF - SS Div II finished 15th in the loaded championship race. They were led by senior Corey Bullock's 15:55, 32nd in the race and 51st overall, and soph Anthony Castro, who 51st in the race and 76th overall in 16:04. Arroyo was 13th in boys Large Schools Varsity race, led by junior Efren Alcala's 16:23, while a 20:50 from senior Karla Lizarraga led the girls to a 17th place finish.
Camrillo Invite - The Glendora girls traveled to Santa Barbara's Shoreline Park to race a flat 3 miles in this low key meet. Lauren Justus won the sophomore race and was second overall in 19:55, while senior Johanna Murray's 20:27 was good for third in her race and fourth overall.
Up Next: Local teams return to league action this week, with the Sierra League at Bonelli Park on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Valle Vista League returns to Bonelli, while the Miramonte League moves to Schabarum Park in Hacienda Heights. Most schools will be off Saturday in advance of the big Mt Sac Invite the following weekend. South Hills will travel to San Luis Obispo for the Cal Poly XC Invite, and several Valley schools will compete at Legg Lake in the Bell Gardens Invitational
Tribune Area's Top Performers for Week 5
Note: It is notoriously difficult to compare XC performances over different terrain, distances, surfaces and weather conditions. The rankings below reflect a rough attempt to rank performances while trying to account those differences. Your mileage may vary.
Girls
Priscilla Llanos - Soph/Rowland 18:51 Mt Sac 2.91 miles, very hilly, cool
Heather Jackson - Soph/Bonita 18:56 Mt Sac
Shavonn Johnson - Frosh/Bonita 19:12 Mt Sac
Marissa Horton - Soph/St. Lucy's 19:13 Mt Sac
Reina Sotelo - Junior/Los Altos 19:15 Mt Sac
Kristy Hebb - Frosh/St. Lucy's 19:36 Mt Sac
Mariah Reyes - Frosh/St. Lucy's 19:51 Mt Sac
Vanessa Lopez - Soph/Rowland 19:52 Mt Sac
Alex Thompson - Senior/St. Lucy's 19:56 Mt Sac
Taylor Hebb - Soph/St. Lucy's 19:56 Mt Sac
Boys (Mt Sac is 6 seconds faster than Woodward Park)
Sergio Rodriguez - Senior/Los Altos 15:42 Mt Sac 2.91 miles, very hilly, cool
Corey Bullock - Senior/Glendora 15:55 Woodward Park 5k, rolling, cool
Anthony Castro - Soph/Glendora 16:04 Woodward Park
Jonathan Taylor - Senior/Rowland 16:06 Mt Sac
Christopher Ramsey - Senior/Glendora 16:22 Woodward Park
Efren Alcala - Junior/Arroyo 16:23 Woodward Park
Jonathan Garcia - Soph/Damien 16:20 Mt Sac
Christian Sanchez - Senior/Walnut 16:27 Mt Sac
Austin Goodheart - Junior/Glendora 16:36 Woodward Park
Eric Espinosa - Junior/Bonita 16:40 Mt Sac
Comments
crosscountrydad & Runner for Life:
Last weeks tribune for Wed Oct 15 had an article about the results of XC races of the weekend. And the female athlete of the week was a XC runner. Lets hope XC continues to receive some recognition and that we'll get to read more about the great runners in our area!
Posted by: XC mom | October 20, 2008 8:39 PM
Crosscountrydad,
I agree with your comment about lack of coverage for other high school sports...I gave up on the tribune covering Cross country a long time ago! For the best Cross Country and Track coverage I always depend on Dyestatcal.com. The Tribune has some coverage but most of the time it's all about Football! If they had more coverage about our local runners I would be the first in line to buy the paper!
Posted by: Runner for life | October 20, 2008 10:58 AM
Why aren't there more updates on cross country in the Preps sport section. It seems as if the only sport really covered is football. In addition to cross country there is: Girls golf, girls tennis, girls volleyball, and boys water polo. I admit that football is popular; however our student athletes in those other sports work just as hard! As a matter of fact Cross country is most of those other sport's punishment !!! Lets get more coverage on those other sports. Let’s give ALL the high school athletes the recognition they deserve. I’m sure more people would buy the paper if they saw their kid's name in the paper on a weekly or biweekly basis.
Posted by: Crosscountrydad | October 19, 2008 8:34 AM
I still think Glendora is getting jobbed. But I might be a little bias myself!!!
Posted by: Gtown Harrier | October 14, 2008 7:54 PM
Gtown - I did a merge of the likely DII CIF finalists using Saturday's results in most cases.
We (Glendora) came out tenth, which is where we're ranked this week. I think the rankings are pretty accurate. My only beef is that I think Thousand Oaks should be #1 over Loyola, and I think Valencia is ranked too high, but maybe the rankers know something I don't.
Posted by: Bob Ramsey | October 14, 2008 10:02 AM
With such strong performances head-to-head against most of the teams in DII, why does Glendora not get rewarded in the rankings? Is there an OC bias? Someone should questions the pollsters who make the rankings!!!
Posted by: Gtown Harrier | October 14, 2008 9:32 AM