By Bob Ramsey, on October 17th, 2011  The SGV One on One Challenge – the first race of the year on the full Mt.SAC course, was postponed to Saturday after rain on the course the previous week. The delay led to a considerably diminished field (about 14 schools), with many teams opting not to run the week before the Mt.SAC Invite, or sending only their non-Varsity athletes.
The Arcadia and Bonita girls made a different choice, both showing up with full-strength teams. The Bearcats were especially impressive, with a 97:01 team effort led by Marissa Scott, 3rd overall at 18:24. Soph Veronica Yamane 2nd/18:08 was strong upfront for Arcadia for a 97:29 team time while missing one of their recent top 5, but a 1:00 gap between 3 and 4 could hurt the Apaches in bigger races.
There were several notable Mt.SAC debut performances by SGV frosh. Walnut’s Anahi Betart was 4th/18:44 and Rachel Shapiro 14th/19:33, Bonita’s Kailyn Scott 5th/19:02, and Azusa’s Roxanne Valle, in what was apparently her first ever only her second XC race, won the 9th grade race and was 22nd/19:50. On the boys side, Glendora frosh Jeff Kirwin won the #3 Varsity race and was 10th overall at 16:30.
In the boys races, none of the ranked SGV teams ran at full strength and the only sub-16:00 performance came from Diamond Bar senior James McCreary, who was 3rd overall at 15:59.
Full Results by Race (pdf’s) are here.
SGV Top Performers after the jump.
Continue reading SGV One on One: SGV Girls Fast Among the Few
By Bob Ramsey, on October 14th, 2011 This weekend was supposed to be a quiet one, lying between the week’s cluster meets and next weekend’s huge Mt.SAC Invitational, at which almost the entire SGV will take part.
However, rain during the previous week moved last weekend’s SGV 1 on 1 Challenge back to this Saturday. This meet, which despite the name is open to teams from all over SoCal, is the first time XC teams get to experience the entire 2.93 miles of the Mt.SAC course. It features the unique format of pitting each teams #1 runner against each other in one race, and each teams #2 in another, on to each teams’ #5. At last years event, 33 schools took part, 20 from the SGV, but it’s unclear if the postponement will lower the numbers this year. Results will be here
 Another switch for this year is the Bell Gardens Invite. Always well supported by the SGV, this long standing meet had struggled organizationally in recent years. Now under new leadership, the meet has moved away from its traditional Legg Lake location to Cerritos Regional Park, but it will still feature a fast, flat 3 mile course with racing by grade levels. With the new leadership, it’s possible that results will be published this year, something that has only happened once in recent years.
The Arcadia boys made a quick dash up the 99 today to run in the Roughrider Invitational at Woodward Park in Fresno, but this meet seems to take place off the grid, so it’s unclear when or where results will be posted and the Apaches showed their usual quality, putting five in the first seven for a 79:28, led by Sergio Gonzalez’ 15:26 win over CIF Div. I #1 CJ Albertson of Buchanan.
By Bob Ramsey, on October 14th, 2011 This competitive league raced on Friday, so they enjoyed much cooler weather than the other leagues this week. The Del Rio’s second cluster meet was held on the hilly three mile course at La Mirada Park, a course that yields times similar to Mt.SAC
Here’s the meet recap from California Coach Tony DiMarco:
Girls VarsityÂ
Bailey Henry (El Rancho) led wire to wire and opened a sizable lead but was challenged late as Justine Romo (CAL) and Marylu Pulido (Whittier) closed the gap. The California girls, missing their #2 runner due to an injury, ran an inspired race leading El Rancho and Whittier from the gun. At two mile, Cal led EL Rancho and Whittier 34-36-41 only to run away with the race over the last mile finishing with 31 points to EL Rancho’s 45 and Whittier’s 50. Whittier also manged to close late on El Rancho with 2nd place actually going to Whittier on 6th runner 46-46 but Whittier’s #3 fell back from 4th overall to 8th over the last half mile and required medical attention after the race. Cal and El Rancho are now tied for first going into league finals on November 4th. The Condors’ team time of 98:54 was second best ever on this course, behind only El Rancho’s 96:03 at the 2007 League Finals.
Boys Varsity
Cal’s Sam Bautista and Jose Pacheco were the early aggressors pushing the pace on the field only to yield the lead and victory to Aaron Mora (Whittier) who finished in 15:24 (3rd fastest time ever run on the course). La Serna’s Michael Munoz 2nd/15:27 was equal #4 all-time on the course. The team battle was a tough one as El Rancho continued to press California throughout the race and at 2 miles led 59-60 over CAL. Both teams moved up nicely over the last mile with Cal prevailing 52-55. California’s team time of 79:52, was, like the girls, second best all-time on the course, behind the course record 78:51 by El Rancho also in the 2007 League Finals. Santa Fe also continues to run well finishing third overall ahead of Whittier, who is still missing two critical scorers.
Full Results
By Bob Ramsey, on October 14th, 2011 You’ll see ’em when we get ’em.
The race was Thursday, October 13th at Schabarum Park.
By Bob Ramsey, on October 14th, 2011  In the first Pacific League Meet, Arcadia tried to keep a bit back to get ready for their big meet two days later in Idaho, and they barely had enough to edge Div. I ranked Burbank. This time the Apaches had a easier time with a 23-33 edge in the multi-dual format, going undefeated on the day. Segrio Gonzalez (15:35) avenged a loss from the first meet to lead the win, with rapidly improving Mitchell Pratt finishing 4th/15:57 as their #2.
The Apache girls fell victim to rapidly improving Crescenta Valley, the host team on this hilly course on a hot Thursday afternoon. Soph Veronica Yamane (18:59) was the meet winner again, but Arcadia’s #2 from the first meet, Laura Guidolin, was out with an injury, which provided the decisive margin to CV.
Full Dyestat coverage and results here.
By Bob Ramsey, on October 14th, 2011  It was 99 degrees when the Glendora girls went to the line to defend their top ranking from the first Baseline League meet. Twenty minutes later, after covering 3 miles on a tough course at Red Hill Park, they’d held to the top spot by an even bigger margin with a 1, 2, 4, 7, 17 finish. The athlete at 17 was their usual #1, who struggled with a side stitch for most of the race, so up front for the Tartans were frosh Micaela Lamb (19:21) and soph Chloe Arriaga (19:33).
The Glendora boys were again second to California #1 Rancho Cucamonga, with junior Garrett Hernandez 7th/16:18 as their #1 man for the first time this season.
Full results are here: Baseline #2 2011
By Bob Ramsey, on October 14th, 2011  Peaky Yuter The Rio Hondo League held their second cluster meet of the 2011 season on the hilly course at Crescenta Valley Park. Like all of Wednesday’s races, they fought high heat along with the tough course.
South Pasadena, with usual number one Cluster Meet #1 winner Paul Messana sitting out, still had enough to hold the first position with a 44-49 margin over La Cañada, who were led by overall winner Brendan Greene (16:52). He was followed by third-placed San Marino’s Peaky Yuter (16:57) who moved up from fifth in the first meet. Josh Wilson 3rd/17:03 was best for the winning Tigers.
On the girls side La Cañada moves from strength to strength as they pushed past Meet #1 winners South Pasadena 30-34. Tiger soph Helena Van Loan was the individual winner with a big margin at 19:11, followed by the Spartans Sonja Cwik at 19:31. Alissa Baraza 6th/20:14 was best for San Marino, who were a solid third.
Full results are at the South Pas team website here.
By Bob Ramsey, on October 12th, 2011 The seven team Hacienda League met for the second time on the Invite Course at Bonelli Park – this time 3 miles as opposed to the long course of the first meet.
Girls: held form from the first meet, with Bonita holding their spot up front, followed again by Walnut and Los Altos. Marissa Scott (Jr, Bonita) was again the winner in 19:15, followed (again) by Walnut frosh Anahi Betart (19:25)
Boys: Rowland’s Nick Rivera (16:18) and David Galvez (16:19) were again 1, 2, but just barely this time over Diamond Bar senior James McCreary (16:20). Los Altos tumbled from first in the first meet to fourth, with Walnut surging to the front with a tight 32 second grouping. Bonita moved up to second and Rowland to third.
More to follow
Full Results
By Bob Ramsey, on October 12th, 2011 Here’s a quick recap from Covina coach Erik Starkey, about today’s race run at the hot and hilly 3 mile course at Schbarum Park.
Girls: Northview was able to pack up and score the same 44 points they scored at meet #1 to win it. Covina gave a strong effort in finishing second with 53. Colts Ashli Baddorf (21:10) and Alondra Elizalde (21:28) went 1-2 in the race and Ruby Medina was 5th. Expected frontrunner Anna Barcelo of Nogales fell back to 4th. Two-time winner Ashli is a converted sprinter/basketball player in only her second cross country season. Alyssa Martinez (3rd at 21:28) led San Dimas to 3rd with 71 points. Victorious Northview finished with a tight grouping from Elizabeth Esparza 6th, Devinie Elizando 7th, Diana Favela 9th, Nayeli Rodriguez10th, and Victoria Patterson 12th. The VVL finals and the two cluster meet are given the same weight in the scoring, so the Vikings have essentially clinched the title.
 Mejia (L) & Maldonado lead Hernandez
Boys: Covina ran without #1 runner Paul Gonzalez, but still repeated their 1-2-3 finish from the first meet. Chris Maldonado won it (16:33) Kevin Mejia was 2nd (16:34) and Manny Cruz stepped up to finish 3rd (17:05). The Colts’ #4 and #5 were 12th and 15th for 33 points. Baldwin Park was 2nd, going 5,7,9,10,13 for 44 points. Their top guy was Isaac Morales (17:39). Nogales was 3rd with 80 points, led by 4th place finisher Jorge Hernandez (17:12). With two wins in a row this essentially clinches the third straight league title for Covina.
We’ll update this admittedly Covina-centric report with information from other coaches and if the league can produce results, we’ll post them too.
By Bob Ramsey, on October 12th, 2011 South El Monte’s Josue Linarte (16:42) and Jaime Perez (17:00) go 1, 2, but Rosemead‘s tight grouping was enough to edge fast rising Gabrielino 49 to 52. Arroyo 3rd/69 pts, SEM 4th/79 pts, El Monte 5th/92, Mountain View 6th/149
Arroyo’s Cindy Ngo (20:42) beats out Rosemead’s Kelly Luc (20:45), but the Panthers take the team win (31 pts) over South El Monte 42 pts. Arroyo 3rd/76 pts, Gabrielino 4th/77 pts. Mountain View and El Monte did not finish five girls to score.
Here’s a quick recap from Gabrielino coach James Marnell:
Course: Legg Lake – 3 mile course – same traditional fast route, all flat with smooth turns, all on dirt and grass. It was an extremely hot day with highs at 96 degrees as I am sure you know.
Boys Varsity: Sam Garcia from Arroyo is still out with an IT band injury. Also Diego Lopez was pulled out this meet as well for rest. All other teams ran their normal squads, outside of Gabrielino who ran freshmen, Armando Ortega for the first time varsity and ended up being the 4th GAB runner today.
Girls Varsity: Arroyo did not run 4 out of their usual 7 runners (not sure which ones) for varsity. The race was very tactical with a pack of about 10 running tightly together for the first 1.5 – 2 miles until the front runners broke away.
Full Results
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SGV Track & XC This site is maintained by Bob Ramsey – a SGV T&F athlete (Arroyo ’80), and former coach at Glendora HS and Meet Director of the SGV Champs. Bob is currently Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at Whittier College
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The SGV One on One Challenge – the first race of the year on the full Mt.SAC course, was postponed to Saturday after rain on the course the previous week. The delay led to a considerably diminished field (about 14 schools), with many teams opting not to run the week before the Mt.SAC Invite, or sending only their non-Varsity athletes.
