Cross Country: Glendora sets course record in Sierra meet, and finishes second at Brea Invite

Brea Invite: Eight East SGV teams raced over the 5000 meter course of the Brea Invite at Carbon Canyon Park.† Last year's fires made this already tough, twisting and hilly course even more difficult by adding about 400 meters of sandy surface to the route.
The Glendora boys (like many of the other teams, racing for the second time in the week) finished second overall, behind only #3 state-ranked Arcadia.† The Tartans were led junior Anthony Castro's fourth place overall.† His 16:24 is probably the best performance by an East SGV boy this season.† The South Hills Girls were 6th overall, putting in a strong bid for Div. III post-season respect.† They were led by Ashley and Vanessa Holguin, 20th and 21st overall.† Charter Oak soph Carly Lake took a huge step forward with her 20:10 effort for sixth place overall.

Top East SGV Performers
Girls
1. 20:10 Carly Lake, So-Charter Oak
2. 21:11† Ashley Holguin, Sr-South Hills
3. 21:12† Vanessa Holguin, Jr-South Hills
4. 21:49† Natalina Lopez, So-Covina
5. 21:58† Rachel Falomir, Jr-Covina
6. 22:04† Allison Mayo, Jr-Glendora
7. 22:18† Jackie Perez, So-Charter Oak

Other team leaders - Azusa: Marlynna Molina 23:18;† Baldwin Park: Lidia Alvarez 23:29;† Los Altos: Krysta Martinez 22:55;† Walnut: Ashley Stanford, 23:14; Wilson: Nicole Olivas, 24:10

Boys
1. 16:24† Anthony Castro, Jr-Glendora
2. 17:01† Kelly Hernandez, Jr-Glendora
3. 17:11† Austin Goodheart, Sr-Glendora
4. 17:18† Jonathan Flores, Jr-South Hills
5. 17:20† Israel Orosco, Sr-Azusa
6. 17:27† Austin Mendoza, So-Glendora
7. 17:36† Joshua Sanchez, So-Los Altos

Other team leaders - Baldwin Park: Julio Gutierrez 18:32;† Charter Oak: Tyler Orosco 18:38;† Covina: Frankie Gonzalez 17:57;† Walnut: Ryan Yoshioka, 18:12;† Wilson: Alejandro Jimenez 19:19

Elsewhere: Rosemead joined a small group (17 schools) of mostly L.A. City section teams at the 3rd annual Weisenburger Invite held just north of Dodger Stadium in Elysian Park.† Senior Christopher Le (16:30) led the Panther boys on this somewhat hilly 3 mile course, but the real noise came from† Brittney Munoz, whose 18:42 effort broke the meet record by more than 30 seconds.

Bonita and Diamond Ranch entered Warren Stauffer Invitational at Hollydale Park in South Gate, run over a fast, flat and probably short 3 mile course.† The Bearcat girls continued to improve with a fourth place team finish, this week led by a breakthrough 17:30 performance from frosh Marissa Scott - an over 90 second improvement from her time two weeks ago at Woodbridge.† Marissa finished 3rd overall, and was joined at the top by 9th grade teammate Lexie Jackson, 9th overall in 17:52. Senior Eric Espinosa again led the Bonita boys at 15:36, 16th overall. Diamond Ranch was led by senior Paul Balderas (15:31 for 9th overall) and soph Brittney Armas (20:05).†

Bishop Amat and† Duarte went in different directions.† The Lancers went to the Stuab/Barnes Invite, run over a very hilly three miles in La Cresenta.† Junior Illiana Velasquez showed her continued mastery of big hills by finishing 6th in the Div. 3 varsity race in 21:08.† The Falcons traveled the other way, running a fast and slightly rolling 3 mile course at the Yucaipa Invitational.† They were led once again by senior Fabian Velasco, who, against a fairly strong field and with probably his best performance so far, was 14th overall in 15:54

Cluster Meets:
Valle Vista League: The Covina Colts took control as the Valle Vista league opened action Wednesday over the 3 mile course at Bonelli Park.† Last year, the Covina girls led all year, while the boys event was a literal deadlock - each cluster meet was tie between Ganesha and Baldwin Park, decided by the faster sixth man.† This year, Covina won both the girls and boys varsity races, as well as the boys JV and boys F/S races.† Baldwin Park won the girls JV race.†† Covina's Kevin Medina and Frankie Gonzalez took first and second in the boys varsity race and Covina girls took the first 4 spots in the girls varsity race.† Covina's Rachel Falomir took first in the girls varsity.

In the boys varsity division, only 17 seconds separated the top 7 runners in league.† In the girls varsity division, Covina dominated, taking the first 4 spots.† Ganesha's, Bianca Macias, took 5th place, 1 minute, 16 seconds behind Rachel Falomir.

(Thanks to Covina coach Erik Starkey and Ganesha's Ron Pullen for this report)

Top Performers
Boys:† Covina - 28, Ganesha - 61, Northview - 64, Baldwin Park - 70, San Dimas - 140, Pomona - 160
1. 16:32† Kevin Medina, Covina
2. 16:44† Frankie Gonzale, Covina
3. 16:47† Xavier Sigala, Northview
4. 16:48† Eddie Trujillo, Ganesha
5. 16:49† Alan Callison,† Northview
6. 16:49† Daniel Valentin,† Covina
7. 16:49† Adan Flores, Ganesha
8. 17:03† Richard Stephenson, Covina
9. 17:11†† Ricardo Becerra, Ganesha
10. 17:12† Steven Huynh, Baldwin Park

Girls: Covina - 20, Baldwin Park - 49, Ganesha - 70, San Dimas - 90, Pomona - NS, Northview - DNS
1. 20:06† Rachel Falomir, Covina
2. 20:21† Natalina Lopez, Covina
3. 20:51† Stephanie Fuentes, Covina
4. 20:58† Denise Ariniega, Covina
5. 21:22† Bianca Macias, Ganesha
6. 21:24† Alyssa Martinez, San Dimas
7. 21:28† Lidia Alvarez, Baldwin Park
8. 22:02† Andrea Valenzuela, Baldwin Park
9. 22:05† Miriam Jimenez, Baldwin Park
10. 22:17† Monica Gomez, Covina

Sierra League: The tough Sierra League, featuring area teams Diamond Bar, Damien/St. Lucy's, and Glendora, began league competition on Tuesday, racing on the 5k course at Bonelli Park in San Dimas.† The Tartan boys ran very strongly to win, placing four in the top five and six in the first eleven.† St. Lucy's, running without two top runners, was second to CIF Div II ranked Ayala.

Junior Anthony Castro and senior Austin Goodheart led Glendora on a day in which all seven runners PR'd.† The Tartans broke the course record with a time (runners 1-5) of 81:47.† The previous best was 81:56 by Ayala '06.† Up and coming Diamond Bar, led by soph James McCreary's 6th place,† narrowly missed finishing 3rd by 6 points.† The Brahmas were missing their usual tight grouping among their first three runners, and that was the difference.† Damien fielded a very young team, and were led by junior John Garcia, who is still looking to regain the strong form he showed last year.

On the girls side, top runners Melissa Horton, and Kristyn Hebb of St. Lucy's and Lauren Justus of Glendora† sat out with injuries and/or illness.† Junior Taylor Hebb led the Monarchs Regents (oops) with a strong second place finish, and her team did well to hold off a resurgent Chino Hills.† Diamond Bar was a distant fourth, but frosh Kelly Kuo's 13th was a bright spot, as was junior Allison Mayo's big PR for 15th for the Tartans.

Top Area Performers
Girls:† 2. St. Lucy's 52, 4. Diamond Bar 125, 6. Glendora 145
1. 19:08† Taylor Hebb† JR-St. Lucy's† 2nd overall
2. 19:59† Katy Hebb† SO-St. Lucy's† 7th
3. 20:24† Emily Bruce JR-St. Lucy's† 10th
4. 20:43† Kelly Kuo† FR-Diamond Bar† 13th
5. 20:48† Mariah Reyes† SO-St. Lucy's† 14th
6. 20:48† Allison Mayo† JR-Glendora† 15th
7. 21:18† Danica Ceballos† St. Lucy's† 19th

Boys:† 1. Glendora 22, 4. Diamond Bar 88, 5. Damien 128
1. 16:02 Anthony Castro† JR-Glendora† 1st overall
2. 16:15† Austin Goodheart† SR-Glendora† 2nd
3. 16:20† Austin Mendoza† SO-Glendora† 4th
4. 16:23† Kelly Hernandez† JR-Glendora† 5th
5. 16:30† James McCreary† SO-Diamond Bar† 6th
6. 16:47† Neill Netzeband† SR-Glendora† 10th
7. 16:48† Shin Yamamura† JR-Glendora† 11th