By Bob Ramsey, on September 12th, 2011 Two SGV schools hit the road this weekend, going north to Ventura and south to San Diego, with several clustering in Cerritos. There were excellent results in each place.
 Three SGV schools took part in the super fast Great Cow Run in Cerritos. (Full results) Rising D1 program California opened well on this flat, 3-mile course. The Condor boys were third (76:40) in a very strong field, with junior Sam Bautista (7th, 15:01) and senior Tim Guzman (10th – 15:13) up front. Justine Romo (8th, 18:27) led the Condor girls to a 6th-place finish. D3 Rosemead were 2nd in the boys (82:46) small school division and 3rd in the girls (96:49), 13th & 12th overall, led by seniors Freddy Cerezo (16:18) and Kelly Luc (19:09). Soph Vanessa De Luna (22:40) was up front for Ramona Convent (117:40).
Racing against some of the biggest names in SS XC, Maranatha was led by an excellent 15:30 effort from Kyle Buechert, at the fast, flat 3-mile Seaside Invitational in Ventura. (Full results) good for 6th in the Junior race. Hannah Rae Finchamp (12th Sophs, 19:18) was the top girl.
Whittier traveled south to run under the lights at the Showdown at Sundown (Full Results) in Mission Hills. The guys were third (81:01) in this small meet run over a fast 5000 meter course, while the girls were fourth (101:16). The Cardinals had top ten performances from seniors Aaron Mora (2nd, 15:16) and David Acevedo (10th, 16:12) while junior Marilu Pulido (5th, 19:08) and senior Wendy Carillo (7th, 19:18) were up front for the girls.
The results for the Laguna Hills Invite were not published until late today. The meet is run by classes, which makes collating results difficult. That said, Arcadia senior Ryan Vargas ran an outstanding 14:56 over the somewhat hilly 3-mile course for the overall meet best. Claremont soph Megan Renken turned in the best SGV girls performance with her 19:27 results. Dyestat results are here.
Other Notable Performances After the Jump
Continue reading Scattered SGV: CalHi Leads at Cow Run
By Bob Ramsey, on September 12th, 2011  Glendora took top honors at the small Cal Poly Bronco Invitational held over a mostly flat, 5000 meter course at Prado Park in Chino. South Hills also had an excellent start with its girls finishing second to the Tartans and the boys coming in third behind GHS and D3 power Brea Olinda.
Glendora soph Mike Duke was the winner with a nice 15:38 effort, while his team combined for a 78:55 finish. He was closely followed up front by junior teammates Ryan Sanchez (2nd, 15:40), and Garrett Hernandez (4th, 15:45), along with senior Austin Mendoza (15:51). South Hills (80:21) front-runners Miles Sustayta, Sr (6th, 15:53) and Jason Diaz, Jr (7th, 15:56) rounded out the SGV athletes in the Top 10.
Diamond Bar (8th, 86:20) was led by a nice 16:02 from senior James McCreary, while soph Josh Jones (54th, 17:55) was up front for San Dimas (11th, 105:55).
On the girls side, the race was won by El Modena senior Julia Lipson with a strong 18:24 effort, but Glendora (85:42) brought the depth to edge South Hills (87:54) for the team title. The young Tartans were led by frosh newcomer Micaela Lamb (6th, 18:55) and sophs Emily Hoey (7th, 18:58) and Kayla McGarrell (9th, 19:06). The Huskies front-runner was junior Carly Sargent (10th, 19:08).
Junior Kelly Kuo (38th, 20:51) was tops for Diamond Bar (11th, 108:11), while D5 ranked Flintridge Prep (12th, 108:14) got off to a nice started paced by sophs Kate Evans (27th, 20:01) and Sarah Yoho (20:05). Junior Emily Smith (21st, 19:45) was best for San Dimas (14th, 111:37).
Full results and Dyestat coverage are here
Other notable performances by SGV athletes and videos of the Varsity races after the jump
Continue reading Bronco: Glendora Gears Up
By Bob Ramsey, on September 9th, 2011  Most of the 75 schools of the San Gabriel Valley will swing into action this week as the 2011 XC season starts with two major meets hosted in the SGV. At the Don Bosco Tech Invite and the Fastback Shootout at Mt.SAC – sponsored by Arroyo – the host schools are the top local contenders. SGV schools will make up a big portion of the small Bronco Invite in Chino where Glendora is the defending boys and girls champs. A handful of locals will travel south to run at the Laguna Hills Invite, where the Arcadia guys will look to continue their of the XC world and the Claremont‘s girls hope to take another step forward, and at The Great Cow Run in Cerritos, where California will look to continue its rise in Div. I.
Short Previews for each meet after the jump. Continue reading Week 1 Preview: Bosco and Fastback lead local action
By Bob Ramsey, on September 8th, 2011  The season’s first CIF-Southern Section polls find 13 SGV teams among the top ten in their divisions, led by the defending CIF, State and National Champs Arcadia Boys.
The Apaches, one of six SGV boys teams in the rankings, begin at the top of Div. I. and Bosco Tech is atop the Div. IV rankings, following their CIF 3rd place and State 5th in ’10. South Pasadena begins the post-Sam Pons era ranked 9th in Div. III and Damien follows-up last years return to the post-season with a 10th ranking. Traditional Div. 5 powers Flintridge Prep and Pasadena Poly begin the season ranked 4th and 7th, respectively
Bonita returned all of their scorers from ’10, and start this year with the highest SGV ranking, 4th in Div. III, joined by Div. IV 4th ranked Flintridge Sacred Heart – one of four area prep/parochial schools in the ranking: Mayfield (7th Div. IV) and Flintridge Prep & Pasadena Poly, 2nd and 6th in Div. 5. Arcadia (8th Div. I) and South Pasadena (10th Div. III) round out the locals,
By Bob Ramsey, on September 7th, 2011 
Here comes your coverage of local cross country action. As we did last year with the schools of the East San Gabriel Valley, this site will cover local schools from a local perspective, but this time expanding our coverage to all of the 75 schools that are part of the SGV Championships group, an area bounded by the mountains on the north, the LA Country line on the east, the 5 freeway on the south, and the LA/Glendale city limit to the west.
Continue reading 2011 XC Coverage Here!
By Bob Ramsey, on April 19th, 2011 A record 40 schools took part in the 2011 SGV Championships, and meet records were set again, and again.
Meet records were set in 15 of the 32 Varsity events, and in 13 Frosh/Soph events, and this year’s marks take up roughly 40% of the new All Time Top 10 List. There were 25 performances that rank in the Top 30 in California for 2011.
Arcadia combined strong distance performances with just enough points in the jumps and relays to take the boys team title over runners up Claremont. On the girls side, the Apaches’ three year winning streak was ended by a strong Claremont team who were followed by SGV newcomer’s Monrovia. Hosts Glendora won both the boys and girls Frosh/Soph titles by large margins.
 Remontay Covina senior Remontay McClain was once again the boys Athlete on the Meet on the strength of his MR’s in the 100 & 200. His 10.60 in the shorter race, run into a negative wind, is the 2011 California State Leading mark. Ohmunique Browne (Jr – San Marino) had a busy day in garnering the girls AOM honors, with meet record wins in the 200m & 300m Hurdles, as second in 100m and a 3rd in the 100m Hurdles.
UCLA bound senior Kylee Price (Bishop Amat) won the female Sprinter/Hurdler award on the strength of her MR 100m win (and her MR win in the long jump). Remontay is the boys winner.
Glendora’s Lauren Justus’ dominating wins in the 1600m & 3200m made he an easy choice in for the girls Distance award, while Nick Rivera (Jr – Rowland) combined a meet record win in the 800m, a second in the 1600m and superior show of sportsmanship to win the boys award.
In the Field Events, Arcadia senior Ismael Naem’s 1st in the long jump and 2nd in the Triple Jump (where he exceeded the previous MR) made him AOM. There were no strong doubles or MR’s in the girls events, so the award goes to Itohan Aikhionbaro (Sr – La Salle), whose 132’9″ win in the discus was the best performance of the group.
Itohan was also the girls Small Schools (Div. IV) AOM, joined on the boys side by Cantwell senior Adam Aguirre, the winner of the high jump at 6’6″
Results at Athletic.net
Hytek Results (all of our jumps were wind-legal and the sprints were all negative wind!) SGV Results 2011
All-Time Performers List for Varsity: SGV-top-10-perf-11 and Frosh/Soph (New!): SGV-SF-top-5-perf-11
By Bob Ramsey, on November 19th, 2010 Five teams and three individuals will compete in Saturday’s CIF Divisional finals over the famous 2.93 mile course at Mt.SAC. Or at least, probably. With rain in the forecast, there’s the possibility that if rains hard enough, the races will be moved to the 5000 meter Rain Course. This course, which finishes inside the stadium and is flat and mostly paved, was last used at the 2007 Footlocker Meet. You can view a map of the Rain Course here.
In ’09, Glendora won the Boys Div. II title in their first ever trip to the finals, while four individuals, including Lauren Justus (Glendora) and Marissa Scott (Bonita) advanced to the State meet. They’ve all qualified again and will be looking to advance once more – which requires a top seven team finish or to be among the up to five individuals from non-qualifying teams that finish in the top 20 of the race.
The day will kick off with the Div. III Boys at 7:45, with the SGV’s Damien and frosh Dillon Nobbs (Bonita) and senior Alan Callison (Northview). This is the first trip to the finals in a number of years for the Spartan and a great honor for the individuals. Callison probably had the best chance to advance, needing about 15 seconds’ improvement to advance. Damien will need about that much or more from each man to be in the hunt for one of the seven spots.
Next up for the SGV are the Div. III Girls at 8:25. Bonita comes into the race with the 9th best performance on time and has been consistently ranked just outside the seven qualifying spots all year. But the Bearcats have yet to run their best on the same day. They are strong up front with soph Marissa Scott, a likely individual qualifier even if the team falls short. It seems that frosh Mikayla Flores is recovered from an earlier injury, but their success will largely depend on who can come through as their 4th and 5th runners.
Webb did well to qualify for the Div. V Boys at 9:05, but senior leader Baily Stockdale has a good chance to advance with a strong performance.
The SGV has two teams in the Div. II Boys at 9:45.  Both Claremont and Glendora enjoyed #1 rankings early in the year, and coming into the final, the Wolfpack look certain to advance to State, and have a strong shot at the podium (top 3) and even the Championship. They’ve fallen in the rankings not through slippling themselves but through the emergence of a number of other very strong teams in perhaps the strongest year ever for CIF XC. If the weather cooperates, there could be a team at or below to 79:00 that will fail to advance to State. Claremont will count on high finishes from seniors Paul Ross and Henry Falotico but the real key will be whether #5 man Jimmy Baeskins can improve on his 16:06 from Prelims.
The Tartans came out of the gate hot this year, but then suffered two season ending injuries and lingering illnesses with two others from their top 7 from September. They ran well to qualify, led by senior Anthony Castro, but will need to run better to return to Fresno. If they can find five strong performances they’ll move on and may even have shot at the podium if one of the top teams slip up.
The Claremont girls and Glendora’s Lauren Justus will go to the line in the final race of the day, the Div. II Girls at 10:45. Lauren was here last year, and ran well to advance. Her 17:53 PR from the Invite makes her a strong contender to move on to State, but this Division is unbelievably strong this year, so there are no guarantees. The Wolfpack, in a testament to their team depth, advanced despite a rough day at Prelims. It will require an extraordinary jump to make the top 7, but with only one senior in their team, they’ll gain valuable experience for next year.
By Bob Ramsey, on November 19th, 2010 Cross Country requires more than talent, and even more than hard work – the athletes need to be lucky enough to stay healthy. Last year Claremont was on track for a top finish until the were derailed by the H1N1 virus, and this year they’ve been healthy. Last year, Glendora enjoyed almost perfect health on their way to their championship, and this year injuries and illness have bit their team.
At last Saturday’s CIF Prelims, both teams advanced. CIF, State and Nationally ranked Claremont had an easy win with their team leaders Paul Ross and Henry Falotico going 1-2 with sub-max 15:28 and a team time of 78:49. The Tartans didn’t have that luxury and raced an all-out 79:16 to finish second in their heat. The were led by a heat winning (and GHS course record) 15:13 from senior Anthony Castro, and received a notable performance from frosh Mike Duke who was their 4th man in 16:01! Rowland had a chance to advance with a great day, and unfortunately went the other way, with each of their guys off by 30-40 seconds.
The Div. III teams got to race in the much warmer afternoon and so the times were a bit off, but not their performances, especially from Damien. The Spartans were enjoying their first trip to prelims in five years, and they made the most of it, running a strong 81:49 to advance to the Finals. They were led by senior John Garcia’s 16:01 and were really helped by their small, 42 second 1-5 gap.
Two individuals also advanced. Bonita’s Dillon Nobbs capped a fine freshman season with a 16:09 in the heat of the day. Even more impressive was Northview’s Alan Callison. The senior improved by over two minutes from ’09 to drop a PR 15:49 and move on to the finals.
In Div. V, senior Baily Stockdale (16:33) led Webb (90:08) into next weeks finals for the first time in a number of years
Complete Results are here
Top 14 Performers and Team Ranking with Team Leaders after the jump
Continue reading CIF Prelims Boys: Claremont, Glendora, Damien & Webb — plus Callison and Nobbs Move On
By Bob Ramsey, on November 18th, 2010 The CIF Southern Section is easily the toughest and strongest sporting section in the country – advancing to the finals of this meet is the equivalent of advancing to the state final in the big states, and superior to the final in smaller states. Just one of the penalties we pay for living in Southern California.
The upshot is that only two of the 19 girls team that qualified from their league meets advanced to the Finals, along with one individual.
Bonita has been ranked in the top 10 of Div III all year, and they advanced as expected with a second place, 99:53 finish in the first heat. There were led once again by 2009 State Finalist Marissa Scott, who finished 7th/19:22 and was joined in first 10 by frosh Mikayla Flores (9th/19:24). The Bearcats time ranked them 13th among the qualifiers, so they will need to take a strong step to finish top 7 to advance as a team, while Marrisa can advance as an individual with a strong effort.
This was the Claremont girls first strong season in several years, and their young team struggled, with a top runner’s DNF and another performing below par. But they were just fast enough and in just the right heat to advance to the Div. II finals, finishing 4th in 100:02. They were led by frosh Merin Arft in a nice 19:17, equaling her effort from the Mt.SAC Invite under less ideal conditions. Div. II is about as strong as any division has ever been for CIF, with the top three teams nationally ranked and the State’s top 9 all from the Southern Section, so the Wolfpack will need a huge step to advance.
South Hills had been ranked #13 in Div III and so advanced as an at-large team despite finishing 4th in the tough Sierra League. The Huskies had a bit of an off day and failed to advance, finishing 6th in the second heat in 102:56. In a division where the top 5 in each heat and the fastest sixth go forward, they missed that spot by 1:34. Junior Alex Borunda (9th/19:24) led their effort and she missed advancing by just 3 places and 17 seconds. Glendora also had a chance to advance but they were slightly off their best and were unlucky to land in the fastest heat. They ran 99:49 – the fastest SGV team time on the day, fastest of the non-qualifying teams, and they would have advanced in heats 2 or 3. This is becoming something of an unwelcome tradition for the Tartans, as their boys team were the fastest non-qualifiers in ’07 and ’08. Tartan senior Lauren Justus – a State finalist in ’09 – fought through illness during the race to finish 6th in 18:39 – top SGV time of the day – to advance individually, and she has strong chance to advance again this year.
Complete Results (PDF’s) are here
SGV Top 14 Performers, Team Rankings Top Performers from each team after the jump
Continue reading CIF Prelims Girls: Bonita, Claremont, and Lauren Advance
By Bob Ramsey, on November 14th, 2010 This site is a one man operation, and the real life affairs of that one man got in the way of the site for a bit.
Apologies to the folks who have checked in and to the Hacienda and MVL athletes looking for timely coverage of their league meets.
We’ll be back shortly.
BR
|
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
|
|
