The weekend at the Mt.SAC Invitational is reserved for the bigger Div. I & II schools, along with the biggest races of the weekend. The East SGV only has ten schools competing, but our area will be well represented in the biggest races.
The Claremont and Glendora boys ranked #3 & #6 in the CIF-SS Div. II and #3 & #5 in the State, will run in the biggest race of the day – the Team Sweepstakes at 10:45. The Glendora girls, led by State ranked #10 Lauren Justus will race in the Individual Sweepstakes at 9:30. Unlike on Friday, the locals mostly manage to miss each other, with only one SGV team in most of the races.
Assuming the rain will not change the schedule, most of the ESGV schools will compete on Friday, when Divs III, IV & V take to the three big hills at Mt.SAC in Walnut. This is the biggest XC meet in the country (and presumably in the world), and the famous 2.93 mile course is the standard for our sport in Southern California.
Our area will be well represented in the big races as well. Rosemead, South Hills and St. Lucy’s will run in the Div III Sweepstakes race at 4:29, and Damien and South Hills will follow in the Boys Sweeps at 4:44. Webb will be in the Boys Div V Sweeps at 5:45.
This is an odd year for team placements, and so with most of the top ranked Div. III teams choosing to stay in the regular Varsity race, CIF-SS 8th ranked Bonita chose to do the same, and that race goes off at 2:04.
Here’s the lineups for all of the local Varsity teams
1:30Â Â D3 Yellow Boys: Azusa, San Dimas, Sierra Vista, Wilson, Workman
1:37Â Â D3 Blue Boys: Bassett, Bishop Amat, Ganesha, Los Altos, Northview
1:43Â Â D3 Green Boys: Bonita, Gabrielino, La Puente, Rosemead
1:50Â Â D3 Red Girls: Bassett, Bishop Amat, Los Altos, San Dimas, Sierra Vista, Workman
1:57Â Â D3 Yellow Girls: Azusa, Ganesha, Wilson
2:04Â Â D3 Blue Girls: Bonita, Gabrielino, La Puente
The meet website is here, and look for live and archived video coverage of the meet at Flotrack and Runnerspace. And here’s a cool course preview, shot on Thursday, from Flotrack:
The finals SGV team began, and ended their cluster meet schedule on Wednesday when Glendora competed in the Baseline League meet on a somewhat tough 3 mile course at Red Hill Park in Rancho Cucamonga. (Their first cluster meet was canceled after being postponed first for heat and then for rain.)
The Tartans were second twice to Div. I power Rancho Cucamonga – with the guys getting Top 10 finishes from seniors Anthony Castro (4th/15:30) and Kelly Hernandez (7th/15:40), while counting two frosh among their top five.
The girls, who had struggled in team competition for the past several years, were a solid second to a Rancho team that set a course record. But the real news was senior Lauren Justus‘ third course record of the season. Running alone after the first 200m and winning by nearly a minute, Lauren posted a 17:51, breaking the old record by 19 seconds.
Glendora will next be in action on Saturday at Mt.SAC where the guys will be in the Team Sweepstakes race and the girls in the Individual Sweeps.
Can running be in your blood? If so, Damien junior Tom Ebiner would be a prime example. His father, Mike Ebiner, was a strong track and XC runner on a CIF championship team at Bishop Amat in early 70’s. And if the name sounds familiar, it should, as Tom’s dad was one of six Ebiner brothers and four sisters who were all excellent runners in the 70’s & 80’s, and his cousin William is a teammate at Damien. But you don’t run with your blood, and Tom first broke through with his own feet last track season when he qualified for CIF in the 3200 out of the tough Sierra League. Let’s meet Tom:
How and when did you start running? – I’ve run for fun ever since I was little. Even though I ran track in elementary school, I didn’t really run competitively until I joined the cross country team my freshman year at Damien. Even then I wasn’t that serious and only ran 18:51 at Mt Sac my first year. My training and times really improved my sophomore track season, and I was able to make it to CIF for the first time racing in the 2 mile”.
What is your favorite workout during XC season, and why? – “I like runs where I can go an easy 10 and get a good hill workout at the same time. So for me running any where in the foothills, such as Horsethief Canyon, San Dimas Canyon, or Marshall Canyon, is great.”
How much did you train over the summer? – “Over the summer I focused mainly on putting in a bunch of miles while also trying to cover a lot of hills. I was able to go up to both Mammoth  and Big Bear for summer training so that was a great way for me to do both.”
What do you think about or concentrate on during XC races? – “I try not to think as much on setting a P.R or hitting a certain mark, but just going out and being competitive with top runners in the race, knowing that will pull me along to good times.”
Five Fun Questions
Best Pizza? – “Warehouse”
Favorite Subject in School? – “History”
Song that’s stuck in your head? – “Don’t have one”
Short or long shorts for training – “Short”
Brand of Running Shoes? – “Asics”
Tom competes next on Friday, in the Div. 3 Sweepstakes race of the Mt. SAC Invite.
The entries for the massive Mt. SAC Invite were released today, and as always, the schools of the East San Gabriel Valley will be well represented, with 30 of the 37 area schools and 1132 local athletes taking part in this massive, two day event featuring hundreds of schools from many states and nearly 20,000 athletes.
Most local schools will be there on Friday, when Divisions III, IV, & V compete. The ESGV will be well represented in the prestigious Sweepstakes races, with Bonita, Rosemead, South Hills & St. Lucy’s lining up in the girls D3 Sweeps, while a resurgent Damien and South Hills will run in the Boys Sweeps. Update: the Bonita girls will be running in the regular Div. III varsity race, in which most of the ranked teams have chosen to run.
Saturday is given over the larger Div. I & II schools, which only includes eight from the ESGV. But those eight include Glendora, which is one of only 12 teams to have both their boys and girls teams make the big Saturday Sweeps, and Claremont, who will compete alongside the Tartan boys.
There was some movement among last week’s four ranked teams in the CIF-SS Cross Country Polls. The Claremont boys, despite a dominating Sierra League run, fell from 1st to 3rd in Div. II, mostly on the strength of Saugus’ performance in their league meet, and who knows what from Loyola. In last Thursday’s Powerade Fab 50 Poll at ESPN Rise, the Wolfpack moved from 38th to 30th after their strong showing at Clovis.
Idle Glendora moved from 7th to 6th among the guys, due to Valencia falling out of the rankings after a poor performance, while the Tartan girls, who competed well at the invisible Bell Gardens meet, dropped out of the rankings due to a number of strong performances at the OC Championships. The Bonita girls, who were off Saturday, remain inexplicably 8th in Div. III.
About 20 schools, including about 10 local schools competed in the Bell Gardens Invitational over the flat 3 mile course at Legg Lake in South El Monte. Because this meet is not willing to publish results in a timely manner, our only coverage is what coaches have sent in for their teams. Here’s what we have, namely, athletes who finished in the top 10 in their race, and some of the placings are estimated…
Arroyo: Nick Cerecedes was 2nd/17:19, Anthony Aparicio 6th/17:31 in the frosh race. Among sophs, Sam Garcia was 2nd/15:38 and Andres Aparicio 4th/16:20. Senior Eric Alvarez was 9th/16:02 in his race. For the girls, Porntida Tingsuck was 6th/19:48 and Natalie Tran 9th/20:24 among frosh. Sophs: Alejandra Lizarraga 3rd/20:27 & Edna Bailon 8th/21:18. Juniors: Cindy Ngo 10th/20:24.
Courtney Canchola - Rowland
Baldwin Park: Frosh boys – Fredy Trujillo 3rd/17:23 & Oscar Vargas 8th/17:46. Senior girls – Miriam Jimenez 3rd/19:05
Glendora: Frosh boys – Damon Payne 1st/17:11, Eric Nezteband 4th/17:27, Richard Johnson 5th/17:31, Grayson Suchanek 7th/17:44, & Mark Duyshart 9th/17:46. Sophs: Ryan Sanchez 3rd/16:02. Girls: Taylor Butler 3rd/19:05, Chloe Arriaga 4th/19:18, Tori Whitworth 5th/19:22. Sophs – Holli Morrow 7th?/20:42. Seniors – Allison Mayo 4th/19:18, Maggie Su 9th?/19:54.
Rowland: Soph boys – David Galvez 1st/15:35. Juniors – Nick Rivera 1st/5:27. Seniors – Ben Alvarez, 10th/16:03. Frosh girls – Courtney Canchola 2nd/18:46. Seniors – Vanessa Lopez 5th-ish/19:29
The frosh boys results were marred four athletes being allowed to run off course and then disqualified, even though their run off course was clearly longer than the actual race. A number of other of the top finishers were also off course for at least some of the time, but retraced their steps, resulting in slower times. One can only hope the meet organizers will take this to heart and run this meet better in the future.
In the only other local action, Rosemead traveled Canyon Cowboys Cross Country Invitational (website) at Castaic Lakes, and were fortunate to run in a meet that provides Full results. The Panthers competed in the Small Schools Division, against mostly Div. 4 & 5 teams, but ran well. The boys were 5th, led by Kelvin Zhong (16th/17:09), while the girls finished a clear first, led by Kelly Luc (8th/20:15).
This weekend will be somewhat quiet, sandwiched between a week filled with cluster meets and next weekend’s Mt.SAC Invitational.
Expect to see about ten local schools take part in the Bell Gardens Invite, a nice, low key affair run over the flat 3 mile DG paths at Legg Lake in South El Monte. Arroyo, Azusa, Baldwin Park, Claremont, Diamond Ranch, El Monte, Glendora, Los Altos, Rowland, and South El Monte all competed here in 2009. Glendora’s Lauren Justus was overall and junior champ last year, and South El Monte’s Jayson Perez (’10) was the top boy. SGV athletes won most of the other races, too: Brandon Martinez (El Monte) – Juniors; Josh Sanchez (Los Altos) – Sophs; and Claremont’s Aric Crowell & Bailey Sanin in the frosh races.
Rosemead will again be the only local competitors at the Canyon Cowboy Cross Country Invitational, held on a fast, slightly rolling course at Castaic Lake. Panther Brittnie Munoz (’10) was the individual champ here last year, and her team was 6th.
The eight team Montview League returned on Thursday to Schabarum Park for their second of four meets over a rolling 3 mile course, one that is less severe than the course used by the Valle Vista League.
The Sierra Vista girls continued their dominance and appear on track to defend their title, again placing four in the Top 10, but this time paced by a 1-2 finish from easy winner Laura Gutierrez (20:12) and Carla Rivera (21:11). Second placed Ganesha also placed four in the first 10, led by Jennifer Castro (3rd/21:30) and Angela Herrera (4th/21:59). Even running without meet #1 winner Zahina Rios, Bassett moved up to third place, paced by Julie Zarza (7th/22:26), while Justine Lengston (8th/22:36) led La Puente to the fourth spot.
Azusa, missing injured team leader Shaina Pardo, who was 3rd in the first meet, fell from third to fifth. They were led by Veronica Lopez (18th/23:36). Gladstone, featuring a big seasonal debut by Fritzy Sanchez (11th/22:57) took the final spot. Duarte and Workman did not have five girls finish, so they didn’t figure in the scoring, but their top runners were Sarah Lopez (31st/24:28) and Veronica Gutierrez (22nd/23:48).
Aided by kinder weather than the first meet, the boys race featured a number of strong performances. Azusa and Meet #1 winners La Puente each put three in the Top 10, but a 1-2 finish and a much stronger #5 than last time tipped the balance to the Aztecs, 46-48. Azusa was led by Kevin Ontiveros (16:29) and Alfredo Orosco (16:39), while the Warriors were paced by Chris Castillo (3rd/16:49) and Victor Mejia (7th/17:23). Ganesha were third again, led by Eddie Trujillo (5th/17:15).
Workman were fourth in the first race on the strength of their pack running, but that was missing this time and they fell to sixth, with Raul Elizarraras (10th/17:31) as their top man. In their place, Armando Rodriguez (8th/17:27), improving by 23 places and 2:21!, led Sierra Vista into the fourth spot. Bassett were again fifth, behind Douglas Castro (4th/17:13), with Duarte – Edgar Medrano (18th/17:03) and Gladstone – Gerardo Cuevas (32nd/18:56) filling out the final spots.
Unique among ESGV leagues, the Montiview will have a third cluster meet on Thursday, 10/28, again at Schabarum Park.
The Rowland boys and Bonita girls rode 1-2 finishes from Nick Rivera (15:42) & David Galvez (15:48), and Marissa Scott (18:39) & Lexie Jackson (19:35) in Wednesday’s second Hacienda League cluster meet. As before, they raced over the new Invite Course at Bonelli Park, but this time it was shorted about 80 yards for safety reason.
Rowland's Nick Rivera
The Rowland guys widened their margin in this meet, placing three in the Top 10, but still gapped pretty far back to 4 & 5. Second placed West Covina, on the other hand, had only a 15 second gap from their leader, senior Kevin Gomez (9th/16:32) to their fifth man with an amazingly packed up 9, 11, 12, 15, 16 finish. Diamond Bar’s James McCreary was again third in 15:57, but was joined in the top ranks by rapidly rising senior teammate Nico Jauregi (10th/16:33) in leading the team to a third place finish. Running without their usual #1, Los Altos feel from 2nd in the first meet to fourth – they were paced by senior Andy Lopez (5th/16:07).
Walnut had two well-placed runners, seniors Scott Margiotta (7th/16:16) and Chris Dobson (8th/16:23) but had nearly a minute gap back to #3, keeping the team fifth. Frosh Dillon Nobbs continued his rapid ascent, moving up to 4th in 16:01, while his team was 6th, and soph Mark Newport (20th/16:59) was the top man for seventh place Diamond Ranch.
The Bonita girls slipped a bit from their previous domination, missing injured first meet winner Mikayla Flores, but they were still the clear winners.  Los Altos placed two in the tightly grouped Top 10 this time, senior Nicolette Garcia (5th/19:53) & junior Krystal Martinez (9th/19:59), and that was enough to move up to second place over third placed West Covina, who were led by Lovella Perea (7th/19:56) and Desiree Lopez (10th/20:01). Rowland was again fourth, but was helped by the return of the team’s 09 #1, senior Vanessa Lopez (4th/19:47) who was preceded to the line by frosh teammate Courtney Conchola (3rd/19:40).
Walnut was fifth this time too, but was led by an amazing debut by frosh Melanie Deciga (5th/19:55). Soph Kellie Kuo (20th/20:31) led sixth place Diamond Bar, while Diamond Ranch paced by junior Celina Kissinger (20:17) failed to finish five runners so they did not count in the scoring
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
The weekend at the Mt.SAC Invitational is reserved for the bigger Div. I & II schools, along with the biggest races of the weekend. The East SGV only has ten schools competing, but our area will be well represented in the biggest races.
The Claremont and Glendora boys ranked #3 & #6 in the CIF-SS Div. II and #3 & #5 in the State, will run in the biggest race of the day – the Team Sweepstakes at 10:45. The Glendora girls, led by State ranked #10 Lauren Justus will race in the Individual Sweepstakes at 9:30. Unlike on Friday, the locals mostly manage to miss each other, with only one SGV team in most of the races.
