The 64th annual Mt. SAC Cross Country Invite begins on Friday, heats up on Saturday

By Fred J. Robledo, Staff Writer
The 64th annual Mt. San Antonio Cross Country Invitational begins Friday and concludes Saturday at Mt. SAC’s 2.93-mile course, which features hilly terrain with names such as “Poopout Hill” and “Switchbacks.” With 57 of the Valley’s high schools competing and more than 600 schools from around the nation in the field, it’s a chance to watch the best of the best go at it in a preview of what lies ahead, with the CIF-Southern Section and state meets fast approaching.

A kids look at the Mt. SAC cross country course, where I ran a 19.36 for Edgewood High School in 1986 …

On Friday, junior varsity races start at 10:52 a.m., with sweepstakes races running from 4:29-5:45 p.m. On Saturday, varsity races start at 7:59 a.m., with the big sweepstakes running from 9:32-11:11 a.m.

The Glendora boys and Bonita girls teams, arguably the best cross country programs in the East San Gabriel Valley, will not compete in sweepstakes races Saturday. Glendora wasn’t selected for a sweepstakes race and will run in division races. Bonita opted to run in a division race instead of competing in sweepstakes.

In Saturday’s Division 3 boys sweepstakes, Bishop Amat, Damien and Los Altos are entered.

When the Bonita girls run, keep an eye on Marissa Scott, who led the Bearcats team to victory in the San Gabriel Valley “One on One Challenge” at Mt. SAC last Saturday. It was the first cross country race of the season at Mt. SAC.

The “One on One Challenge” was supposed to run a week earlier, but rain pushed the event back to last week and forced several teams to
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cancel with the Mt. SAC Invitational looming this week.

At the “One on One Challenge,” Scott finished third overall in 18:24. Other notable Valley finishers included Walnut’s Anahi Betart, fourth in 18:44, and Bonita’s Kailyn Scott, fifth in 19:02.

Walnut’s Rachel Shapir placed 14th in 19:33, and Azusa freshman Roxanne Valle, in her first-ever race, clocked an impressive 19:50.

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