Monthly Archives: September 2010

Race Reports

Valle Vista #1: Covina Doubles Up

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Covina High is one of the oldest schools in the SGV, and yet last year was the first time the Colts had won both boys and girls league titles in the same season.  And now it looks like they want to make it a habit, as they won both varsity races in today’s Valle Vista League Cluster meet – run over the 3 mile Lake Course at Bonelli Park in San Dimas.  Note:  Several silly editing errors have been corrected below

The girls race was extremely competitive with five schools represented in the Top 10.   Miriam Jimenez (Sr – Baldwin Park) was a strong winner (19:31) and led her team to a second place finish.  She was followed by San Dimas soph Alyssa Martinez (20:10), whose team was fourth.  Third placed Northview was much improved, with good front runners, including Elizabeth Esparza (3rd/20:20) and Brittney Arrevalo (8th/20:52).   But it was Covina’s ability to put four in the Top 10, led by Rachel Falomir (5th/20:42) and Ashli Baddorf (6th/20:48) that led them to a rather easy win, leaving the Colts in good position for a Valle Vista 3-peat.

The front of the boys race looked almost like a dual meet between Covina and Northview, with their athletes taking eight of the first ten spots.  The race featured three front runners from Northview including overall winner Alan Callison (16:11), who was never challenged.  Jorge Hernandez (3rd/16:42) of third placed Nogales (whose second runner is just returning from injury) and Richard Gutierrez (10th/17:05) of Baldwin Park managed to butt in, but in the end, Covina outshone everyone with a fine looking pack as they went 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, with Kevin Mejia (2nd/16:38) and Kevin Medina (5th/16:45) leading the way.

Download:  Valle Vista #1 Team Results & Valle Vista #1 Indiv Results

(Thanks to Covina’s Erik Starkey and BP’s Cobe Guzman for their contributions to this article)

Top Ten’s and Top Teams after the jump.

Continue reading Valle Vista #1: Covina Doubles Up →

Race Reports

Montview #1: La Puente Boys Out Fast – Sierra Vista Girls Still In Front

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The Montview League, for which this will be the first of three cluster meets, opened their league season today at the very tough Schabarum Park course in Rowland Heights, which had the added challenge of high heat and strong winds.

Coming into the day, the Azusa boys were defending champs.  Ganesha, moving from the Valle Vista to the Montview, had had recent success, and at the end of the day in the boys race, both had been surpassed by La Puente. Azusa, led by a dominating win from Alfredo Orosco (16:53), actually put four runners in the Top 10, but a big, 18 spot and 1:27 gap between 4 and 5 opened the door for the Warriors, who combined a 2, 3 finish from Chris Castillo (17:14) & Victor Mejia (17:30) with a much stronger 5th place to take the win.

Newcomers Ganesha, led by Carlos Sanchez (17:51) were third, while the all-important fourth spot (4 advance to CIF) was taken by Workman in a strong display of pack running (1:10 1-5 gap) with Josh Macia (15th/18:28) as their top man.  Giovanni Munoz (22nd/18:57) led Sierra Vista to the 5th spot, followed by Bassett (Douglas Castro – 7th/17:51), Duarte (Edgar Medrano – 8th/18:02) and Gladstone (Gerado Cuevas – 18th/18:43).

On the girls side, Sierra Vista took a strong step to defend their title, putting four runners in the top six, led by ’09 ML champ Laura Gutierrez (2nd/21:01) & Janet Solis (4th/21:33), pushing back a strong second place effort from newcomers Ganesha.  The Giants, led by Angela Herrera (7th/22:34) packed up exceptionally well, finishing 7, 8, 9, 11, 12!  Next came Azusa, paced by Shaina Pardo (3rd/21:21) and Bassett, led by an easy win from Zahina Rios (20:22), was fourth.

Complete Varsity Boys Results: Montview #1-10 Boys.pdf

Complete Varsity Girls Results: Montview #1-10 Girls.pdf

Lower level results to follow

Coaches/parents/athletes – make this coverage better by sending race notes, photos and links to photo galleries to info@sgvtrackandfield.net

Meet Reports

Hacienda #1 – Bonita & Rowland Win the First One

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The Rowland boys and Bonita girls pushed themselves to the front in today’s inaugural Hacienda League cluster meet, held in brutal heat at Bonelli Park in San Dimas over the new “Top Speed” 3 mile course.  This new league brought together schools from three different leagues – the Los Altos boys and Bonita girls are defending champs from the old Miramonte League, while the West Covina girls just fell short of winning the old San Antonio League. The Diamond Bar guys narrowly missed advancing to CIF out of last year’s powerful Sierra League, while the fast improving Rowland boys arrived looking for a championship.

Mikayla, Lexie, Marissa

The Bearcats quickly took control of the girls race with the first three across the line: frosh Mikayla Flores (19:56) and sophs Marissa Scott (20:06) & Lexie Jackson (20:12), and five in the first ten for a dominating 25 points.  West Covina, led by a 4-5 finish from senior Lovella Perea (20:31) and frosh Erica Loberg (20:35) were second with 73, followed closely at 79 points by Los Altos, led by Krystal Martinez (7th/20:43).

There was a real battle for the all-important fourth spot (4 advance to CIF from this league), with Rowland (121), Walnut (123), and Diamond Bar (125) just four points apart.  The Raiders, absent the injured ’09 #1 Vanessa Lopez, were led by frosh Courtney Canchola (8th/20:48), WHS by soph Terada Yumi (6th/20:43) and the Brahmas by soph Kelly Kuo (21:00).  Diamond Ranch, led by junior Selina Kissinger took the final spot.

Rowland were the clear winners among the boys with a 1-2 finish from soph David Galvez (16:14) – an excellent effort on such a tough day, and junior Nick Rivera (16:26).  He was followed by DBHS’s junior James McCreary who led his team to the coveted 4th place spot, helped by senior XC newcomer Nico Jauregui‘s 12th place/17:14 finish.

Los Altos nosed out West Covina for second by two points.  The Bulldogs put two in the top ten – Kevin Gomez (7th/17:03) & Asad Amin (10th/17:10) as did the Conq’s – junior Josh Sanchez (4th/16:43) and senior Andy Lopez (5th/16:46).  Senior Scott Margiotta (10th/17:10) paced Walnut to 5th, and Bonita was sixth, led by frosh Dillon Nobbs (9th/17:06).  Only three runners, led by soph Mark Newport (22nd/17:58) finished for Diamond Ranch, so they did not figure in the team scoring.

Varsity Results are here: Hacienda League#1 Varsity

And you can view pdf’s of copies of the finish sheets and timer tapes here: Frosh/Soph Boys, JV Girls & JV Boys.

Coaches/parents/athletes – make this coverage better by sending race notes, photos and links to photo galleries to info@sgvtrackandfield.net

Features

Getting to Know Nick Rivera

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Nick at Bosco Tech

Success in Cross Country usually comes only after years of specific training, but sometimes talent gets it done.  Rowland junior Nick Rivera is in just his first season of XC, but he has already won at Bosco Tech and turned in a ESGV best performance at Sunny Hills.  No stranger to running fast, he was a CIF D2 finalist at 400m last year, with track PR’s of 22.6 in the 200 and 49.8 in the 400, and he’s the subject of our first athlete interview.

How and when did you start running? – “I started running track freshman year. I started cross country this year (11th grade).  My teammates and coaches persuaded me to join cross country.”

What are your favorite Cross Country Workouts? – “My favorite XC workouts are 400s and Pepperdale which is a super steep hill we run up.  I love these because I want to run a faster 400 in track.”

How much did you run over the summer? – “Unfortunately, I was on vacation and only had about four weeks of training before the season.”

What do you think about during an XC race? – “I think about my splits, catching up to the guy if he is in front of me, and when I am in the lead I think about finishing strong and getting a good time.”

And Five Fun Questions:

  • Best tacos? – “King Taco or Taco del Rio.”
  • Favorite subject in school? – “History”
  • Song that’s stuck in your head? – “All The Way Turnt Up by Roscoe Dash”
  • Brand of running shoes? – “Saucony”
  • Short or long shorts at practice? – “Short”

Nick competes next in today’s Hacienda League Cluster Meet at Bonelli Park in San Dimas.

Meet Reports

Sierra #1: Claremont Keeps Rolling – MVL Postponed

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The first league meet of the season was Tuesday, with the newly constructed Sierra League racing over the 5000 meter (3.11 miles) course at Bonelli Park in San Dimas.  Meanwhile, the Mission Valley League decided to postpone their first cluster meet until next Tuesday, October 5th.

The Claremont boys wasted no time in putting their stamp on the new league, setting a new course record and dropping only 27 points on a field that included CIF D2 & California #6 Ayala.  The Wolfpack’s top four ran as a pack for most of the race, with seniors Paul Ross and Colin Domonoske first across together in 16:04, while their top 5 combined for 81:40, breaking the record of 81:47 set by last year’s league & CIF champs Glendora.

After several years in the XC wilderness, Damien put themselves into CIF contention with a strong third place finish, led by juniors Tom Ebiner (5th/16:27) & Moses Baiden (7th/16:42).  SL newcomers South Hills and Charter Oak were fourth and sixth.  Seniors Christian Sanchez (8th/16:42) and  Gilbert Mundo (11th/16:53) were tops for the Huskies, while senior Tyler Orosco (23rd/17:24) was up front for COHS.

In the girls races, Claremont and South Hills were 2nd and 3rd to CIF & State ranked Ayala.  The Wolfpack’s young runners led the way again, topped by frosh Merin Arft‘s 3rd place, 19:37 effort and soph Bailey Sainen (11th/20:29, while SHHS was paced by junior Alex Borunda (6th/19:52) and senior Vianca Holguin (9th/20:00).

SGV 2009 #1 St. Lucy’s, fielding only five girls and missing team leader Marissa Horton, struggled to a fifth place finish, with senior Taylor Hebb (8th/20:00) up front.  CO junior Carly Lake (5th/19:48) more than held her own in this tough league, while her team was sixth.

Complete Results (Including JV and F/S) are here:  Sierra League #1 Results.pdf and you can view a Claremont-centric photo gallery here.

And here’s excellent video coverage of the races and interviews with the winner by Tom Kiss of the Trib Newspaper group.  (However, unless you go in for that sort of thing, you should be warned that there is a Creed song on the video soundtrack.)

Rankings

CIF XC Polls (9/28) – Wolfpack Top CIF & State (but not Country or World)

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The Claremont and Glendora boys were idle last weekend, so the Wolfpack stayed atop Div. II in this week’s CIF Southern Section Divisional Rankings, while a strong Adolfo Camarillo performance in a league meet and the return of team leader Heyden Wolff pushed Glendora back to 5th.

The Bonita girls ran well at Dana Hills, but remained 8th in Div. III.

In the most recent California State Rankings released last night, CHS and GHS were also ranked first and fifth (the SS usually dominates the State Rankings) while Bonita appears to be just outside the Top 10.

Claremont and Glendora also feature in several national polls.  National rankings in high school sports are notoriously iffy, but that said, in the 9/23 Powerade Fab 50, featured on the national Dyestat/ESPN site, the Wolfpark are ranked 26th and the Tartans 35th.

Previews

Week 4: League Cluster Meets!

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So now the real competition begins, with almost all of the ESGV schools competing in their first league cluster meets.  Cluster meets, in which all of a league’s schools compete as once, have replaced the older dual meets.  Some of these meets are scored as “multi-duals” in which the scorers take the results and match each team against each of the others, creating dual meets for everyone.  These meets are reported by the schools record on the day versus the other teams: 5-0 or 2-3.  The more common format is championship scoring, in which all of the schools are combined, and the low overall score wins.

With 2010 being the first year of the new league alignments, there are plenty of new match-ups and, with the Hacienda, one entirely new league.  The Mission Valley League is moving to cluster meets this year.  Intriguing match ups will be come in the Sierra League, as South Hills and Claremont face established powers Ayala and St. Lucy’s, and in the other newly structured leagues as teams sort out the new pecking orders.

Full schedule and new league lineups after the jump. Continue reading Week 4: League Cluster Meets! →

General News

Week 3 Wrap-Up: Youth is Served

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This week's #4 Andy Lopez

With many teams taking the weekend off or resting varsity runners in anticipation of this week’s league meets, younger runners were able to shine.  Bonita won both frosh races at the big Dana Hills Invite, while Rowland’s largely underclass team had the top local finish at the Sunny Hills Invite. Griffith Park’s Bell-Jeff Invite, with strong performances from Los Altos and the Stanford Invite rounded out the local schedule.

This weeks top performers were Rowland junior (and single shoe runner, see below) Nick Rivera, who was 2nd in his class and 8th overall at Sunny Hills, and Lexie Jackson (Soph-Bonita) who was second in her class at Dana Hills.  Frosh & Sophs made up three of the boys Top Ten and all but three of the girls.

This week’s Top Ten Performers after the jump.  Continue reading Week 3 Wrap-Up: Youth is Served →

Meet Reports

Dana Hills: Young Runners Lead

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The Dana Hills Invite, run over a fast and slightly net down hill 3 mile course on the host campus. brings together some of the top XC teams in Southern California, and the young runners at Bonita proved they belonged, winning both the boys and girls Div. II Frosh Races.

Lexie Jackson

The top performance came from soph Lexie Jackson.  Her 18:02 was second in her race, 4th among all sophs.  The frosh boys were led by the Bearcats top performer on the day, Dillon Nobbs, who won his race in 16:05, 2nd best among all frosh.  Frosh Mikayla Flores was 2nd in 18:15, and 4th in all divsions.

The young Claremont girls nearly matched Bonita, with frosh Megan Renken leading the team with a 18:39 for 6th in D2, follow by Merin Arft in 8th with 18:43.  Soph Baily Sanin chipped in a 19:00 for 6th in her race.  The Wolfpack’s top ranked boys team did not compete, so their leader was soph Jimmy Baeskins (3rd/16:12) followed by Nicholas Luber (9th/16:38)

Diamond Bar‘s lone top ten performance came from junior James McCreary (7th/15:34), while soph Kelly Kuo (15th/19:46) was again their top girls.

Complete results and coverage from Dyestat here

Race Reports

Sunny Hills: Rowland Boys & Miriam Lead

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The Rowland boys team is taking big strides this year, and they took another key step with the top local finish at the Sunny Hills Invite, run over a hilly 3 mile course at Craig Park in Fullerton.  The Raiders placed 7th, just behind CIF ranked Valencia and St. John Bosco in this 34 team meet.  They were again led by junior Nick Rivera, who was second in his class race and 8th overall in 15:56.  Amazingly, Nick lost one of his shoes after the first mile and ran the final two in just a sock!  Teammates Benjamin Alvarez (SR) 8th in the class race and 11th overall with 16:02, and David Galvez‘ 16:45 was good for 4th among sophs and 37th overall for the top three local performances.

Baldwin Park’s Miriam Jimenez was the top local girl with a big come through 19:17 effort, good for 7th among seniors and 12th overall.  Just behind her at 13th overall and 5th among juniors was Charter Oak’s Carly Lake with 19:22, and rounding out the top local performers was Alyssa Martinez (JR-San Dimas) at 20:27, 5th among sophs and 29th overall.

Other Top Ten performances came from Baldwin Park frosh Gabriel Gamez (7th in 17:54) sophs William Knoth, Charter Oak (6th/16:48) and Andrew Tattersall, Rowland (7th/17:11).

Complete results are here.

Top Performers and Team Placing for all teams after the jump. Continue reading Sunny Hills: Rowland Boys & Miriam Lead →