About 40% of the San Gabriel Valley’s cross country programs opened their seasons this past weekend, scattered around Southern California in mostly low-key opening races. Here’s a quick round-up of the four races held outside of the SGV..
Great Cow Run – 3 miles
The Great Cow run, 3 flat miles on a fast course at Cerritos County Park, is one of the top opening meets in SoCal, SGV powers California and Arcadia opened here, but neither program ran close full-strength. The Apache boys were 8th overall, with El Rancho a solid 15th/83:09.
In the girls race, Cal finished well at 6th/98:04, with senior Mai Quesada leading SGV athletes with her 22nd/19:06 finish – nearly a minute better than last year at this meet
The best male performance was from Rowland senior Nicholas Acevedo, who is way ahead of his 2018 bests with a tenth overall finish in 15:25 on the fast, flat 3-mile course.
Riverside Showcase – 2.25 miles
SGV schools came out strong on this opener on a short, 2.25 mile version of the CIF-SS Championship course in Riverside.
The La Mirada girls led the charge, winning this 10-team meet by putting their first five in the top 21 of the race. Bonita were 4th in the race that saw SGV girls put five in the first ten: Alexis Corvese (St. Lucy’s) 4th/14:13; Mariah Waters (La Mirada) 6th/14:26; Arianna Kumar (Bonita) 8th/14:34; Natalia Zuniga (La Mirada) 9th/14:37; Sophia Gomez (La Mirada).
CIF-ranked Bonita were the top boys team, finishing 7th in a field of 18. Daniel Echeveste (Bonita) 5th/11:18; Danny Ebiner (Damien) 10th/11:25 had the top local performances.
And, at the UCSB Gaucho Invitational, the Polytechnic girls finished 7th in a field of 11, led by senior Sophie Phinney, who was 19th/20:28 on the flat 3-mile course. The boys were led by a 29th/16:55 finish by senior Evan Hayes but did not score as a team. (Full Results)
Parents, friends, coaches – please help make our coverage better by sending race notes and photos (right away!) to info@sgvtrackandfield.net
