By Bob Ramsey, on October 8th, 2010 The Mission Valley League held their first ever cluster meet Tuesday at Legg Lake after years of competing in dual meets. South El Monte (boys) and Rosemead (girls) are the defending champs in this six school league – the only local group that was not changed in this year’s realignment process. In early meets, Rosemead looks ready to defend, while Arroyo are the likely boys leaders. And that’s just what happened with the Arroyo guys posting a rather easy win, while the Rosemead girls narrowly outpaced the young Knights team.
 The young Arroyo boys team dropped a dominating 21 points on the field, running over a flat 3 mile course, placing five in the top seven. They were led by Sam Garcia‘s easy 15:38 win over Irving Alfaro (16:04) from second placed SEM. They were followed by Diego Lopez (AHS-16:10) and Fernando Hernandez (SEM-16:14) and then the next three Arroyo runners. 3rd placed Rosemead’s Abraham Esparza was 8th at 16:28, 9th was ’09 CIF qualifyer Brandon Martinez (16:29) from 5th placed El Monte and 4th placed Mountain View’s Oswel Call rounded out the top 10 at 16:44. William Ko (14th-16:52) placed 6th place Gabrielino, with his time equaling his school’s 3 mile XC record.
The girls race was tight, with Rosemead and Arroyo runners taking eight of the first ten spots. The Panthers were led by a 1-2 finish from Kelly Luc (19:23) and Jocelyn Hua (19:34), while the Knights were paced by a 3-5 finish from newcomer Portinda Tingsuk (19:47) and Edna Bailon (20:18). Gabrielino’s Horalia Gamboa (6th-20:22) paced her narrowly 4th placed team with a lifetime best while Nayeli Santamaria (10th-26) led sixth placed Mountain View. South El Monte took the important third place, with Jasmin Mesa (14th/20:39) as their top finisher, while Angie Tejada (19th/21:31) led El Monte.
Complete results are here: MVL #1-10 Boys Varsity, MVL #1-10 Girls Varsity, MVL #1-10 Boys F/S, MVL #1-10 Girls JV, & MVL #1-10 Boys JV
Varsity Team Scores and Top 10’s after the jump. Continue reading MVL #1: Arroyo & Rosemead are First
By Bob Ramsey, on October 6th, 2010  Miriam at Sunny Hills Our sport takes time. It takes commitment. It takes passion. And when you add all three up, you can have success. That’s how it’s worked for Baldwin Park senior Miriam Jimenez. Miriam has been a steady part of the track and XC program for the Braves, but Coach Cobe Guzman says that this year, she made a special commitment to her training, and it’s shown. She was a clear winner at last week’s Valle Vista League cluster meet, easily defeating the defending league champion, and her strong effort at the Sunny Hills meet makes her the 8th ranked performer in the SGV this season. Let’s meet Miriam…
How and when did you start running? – “I started running during my sophomore year with the track & field team. I was trying out for softball when I saw the girls go for their daily street run. It caught my attention and I showed up to practice the following week.”
What is your favorite workout during XC season, and why? – “My favorite workout would have to be our Saturday mornings, going for a long run out in parks with the rest of the girls.”
How much did you train over the summer? – “I trained my whole entire summer vacation, 6 times a week. I even missed my own traditional trip to Mexico to visit family for I could be in my best shape.”
What do you think about or concentrate on during XC races? – “I think about just putting all my best on each race, as if it were my last one. I concentrate mostly on setting new p.r’s – but also on having a blast!”
Five Fun Questions:
- Best place for pizza? – “Chuck E Cheese”
- Favorite subject in school? – “Science”
- Song that’s stuck in your head? – “Just the Way You Are” – Bruno Mars
- What do you do with you hair when you run? – “Normally, braided with my bangs twisted to the side.”
- Brand of running shoes? – “PINK Saucony”
Miriam competes next this Saturday at Mt.SAC in the San Gabriel Valley 1 v. 1 Challenge, where she’ll meet some of SoCal’s top runners.
By Bob Ramsey, on October 5th, 2010 Comparing performances in Cross Country is notoriously difficult. In just four weeks, the SGV athletes have raced over varying distances, over courses that ranged from completely flat to very hilly, and on soft and deep grass as well as pavement. Plus, they’ve raced in cool coastal evenings and brutal afternoon heat.
All that said, the tables below offer our best attempts to rank the XC performances this year.
Boys
- 14:36Â Â Paul Ross (Sr-Claremont) – Woodbridge/3 miles flat
- 15:11 Â Anthony Castro (Sr-Glendora) – Bronco/5K rolling/slow
- 14:51Â Â Henry Falotico (Sr-CHS) – Woodbridge
- 15:30Â Â Kelly Hernandez (Sr-GHS) – Bronco
- 15:04Â Â Colin Domonoske (Sr-CHS) – Woodbridge
- 15:05Â Â A.K. Metoyer (Sr-CHS) – Woodbridge
- 15:54Â Â Austin Mendoza (Jr-GHS) – Bronco
- 15:23Â Â Ross Brunett (Jr-GHS) – Woodbridge
- 15:23Â Â Dillon Nobbs (Fr-Bonita) – Stauffer/3miles flat fast
- 15:57Â Â Gilbert Mundo (Sr-South Hills) – Bronco
Girls
- 17:04Â Â Lauren Justus (Sr-Glendora) – Woodbridge/3 miles flat
- 17:46Â Â Marissa Scott (So-Bonita) – Stauffer/3miles flat fast
- 18:17Â Â Lexie Jackson (So-BHS) – Woodbridge
- 18:21Â Â Mikayla Flores (Fr-BHS) – Woodbridge
- 19:12Â Â Alex Borunda (Jr-South Hills) – Top Speed/3m rolling slow
- 19:21Â Â Vianca Holguin (Sr-SHHS) – Sierra #1/5k rolling fast
- 19:37Â Â Merin Arft (Fr-Claremont) – Sierra #1
- 19:17Â Â Miriam Jimenez (Sr-Baldwin Park) – Sunny Hills/3m hilly
- 19:48Â Â Carly Lake (Jr-Charter Oak) – Sierra #1
- 19:43Â Â Baily Sanin (So-CHS) – Top Speed
And click on the links to download list of…
By Bob Ramsey, on October 4th, 2010 With this week’s cluster meets and many teams competing on the weekend, almost every SGV Cross Country team competed this week.
The top performance came from the top-ranked Claremont boys, who set a course record in dominating their first Sierra League meet. The Bonita girls and Rowland boys showed their strength in the new Hacienda League. Covina won both sides of the enlarged Valle Vista League, while the Montview League was paced by La Puente (b) and Sierra Vista (g).
On the weekend, the most notable performances came from Glendora at the Top Speed XC Classic, where both teams were second, and from Bonita at the Warren Stauffer Invite.
Glendora’s Anthony Castro & Lauren Justus had the top local performances of the week at Bonelli on Saturday.
This weeks Top 10’s after the jump
Continue reading Week 4 Wrap-up: Lots and Lots of Racing
By Bob Ramsey, on October 4th, 2010 Thirteen local schools made up half of the field at the first edition of the Top Speed Super XC Classic, run over a new and difficult three mile course at Bonelli Park, and hosted by South Hills High School.
 Lauren Glendora’s Lauren Justus was easily the top local performer in the meet. Leading from the gun, and alone after several hundred meters, Lauren was leading by 1:00 at 2 miles, only to back off over the final mile, leaving her a 18:23 win and a 49 second margin over a hard charging Alex Borunda (Sr-South Hills), who was second in 19:12. Alex was joined by senior teammate Vianca Holguin (4th/19:21) and Claremont soph Bailey Sanin (7th/19:43) in the meet’s Top Ten.
The Tartans (2nd) and Huskies (3rd) had strong team performances, taking up 4 and 3 spots, respectively in the SGV Top Ten for the day. For the other local teams, Sanin-led Claremont resting most of their team, were 7th, senior Rachel Falomir (42nd/21:12) led Covina to a 10th place finish, San Dimas were 11th behind soph Alyssa Martinez (24th/20:28), and senior Illiana Velazquez (14th/20:11) paced Bishop Amat to 16th.
Glendora seniors Anthony Castro (4th/15:46) and Kelly Hernandez (6th/15:55) were the top locals among the boys in a race dominated by Div I power Rancho Cucamonga. The short-handed, but still sub-par Tartans were second on the day, while new Sierra League rivals South Hills and Damien were sixth and seventh. The Huskies were led by senior Jonathan Flores (16th/16:29), while junior Moises Baiden (13th/16:22) paced the Spartans. One other notable performance came from Glendora frosh Mike Duke (28th/16:52) and 8th among the SGV.
With the other local teams, Covina were 9th behind soph Kevin Mejia (32nd/17:02), Claremont’s B-team (they rested their first 7) were 10th, topped by soph Nick Luber (47th/17:26), frosh Michael Torres (46th/17:24) led Bishop Amat to 11th, while Gabrielino (17th) and San Dimas (18th) were led by junior William Ko (70th/18:00) and senior Kyle Smith (61st/17:42), respectively.
Full results are here.
Local Top 10’s, and Divisional Top 5’s after the jump.
Continue reading Top Speed/Bonelli: Lauren Keeps Rolling
By Bob Ramsey, on October 4th, 2010  Marissa Scott (c) Eight SGV schools, some with partial squads, scattered to four different meets Saturday, with the top local performances coming from Bonita on the flat and very fast 3 mile course at the Warren Stauffer Invite in South Gate. The Div. III ranked Bearcat girls were 2nd to California leaders Redondo Union, while the boys were 7th overall. Bonita was again led by soph Marissa Scott (7th/17:46) who ran well despite poor course directing by the meet staff, but the real news came from frosh Dillon Nobbs who dominated his divisional race and ranked third on the day with a 15:11. This is really a strong year for SGV frosh boys. Complete results are here, and a photo gallery is here.
Azusa, Baldwin Park, and Charter Oak, Los Altos and Wilson ran in the Brea-Olinda Invite, run over tough 5k course at Carbon Canyon Park. Baldwin Park senior (and this week’s featured athlete) Miriam Jimenez (20th/21:09) was the top local girl, while Azusa senior Alfredo Orosco (44th/17:48) was best among the boys. The Braves at 14th, were the top boys team led by senior Steven Huynh (49th/17:51), while the Jimenez led girls were 9th. Orsoco’s Aztecs were 15th, while junior Shaina Pardo (41st/21:59) and her teammates were 21st. Charter Oak, missing top runner Carly Lake, were 21st (boys) and 14th (girls) led by soph William Knoth (49th/17:53) and junior Julia Galvez (27th/22:14). Los Altos ran a B-Team, led by Andrew Cruz (20:38) while the Wilson boys were 25th behind senior Alejandro Jimenez (45th/17:49) Complete results are here, and there is a photo gallery here.
Rosemead were the only locals at the Weisenburger Invite, run over a hilly 3 mile course at L.A.’s Elysian Park. The Girls were 4th Varsity, led by Kelly Luc (4th/19:38). The Boys with 8th, their best was Daniel Moreno (33rd/17:17). Complete Results are here, and here’s a Photo Album. The Duarte boys traveled east to the Yucaipa Invite and finished 49th, led by Enrique Gutierrez (58th/19:05). Complete Results.
By Bob Ramsey, on October 1st, 2010  The SGV is the home of a new meet this week – the Top Speed Running Super XC Classic at Bonelli Park in San Dimas. Hosted by South Hills HS, the athletes will race over a newly created 3 mile course that allows spectators to see the runners through most of the race. Thirteen local schools will take part, led by CIF ranked Claremont & Glendora, as well as Covina, who were double winners over at Bonelli in Thursday’s Valle Vista League Cluster Meet. The locals will be joined by CIF Ranked Rancho Cucamonga for a strong day of racing. You can view complete entries here: super xc team-athlete.pdf
Azusa, Baldwin Park, Charter Oak, Los Altos, & Wilson will travel with 35 others schools to Carbon Canyon Park in Brea for the Brea Olinda Invitational. This race features a somewhat slow 5k course and the unique format of matching each team’s 1-2 runners, then 3-4 runners, and 5-7 runners in separate heats. The Glendora guys were second at this meet last year, on a day that featured strong performances from the South Hills girls and Charter Oak’s Carly Lake.
CIF ranked Bonita will travel to the Stauffer Invite in Downey, which is run over a very fast (short?) 3 mile course – the Bearcats did very well here last year. Rosemead travels to the Weisenberger Invite in Elysian Park, where the Panthers will be chasing Brittnie Munoz (’10) meet record performance from last year, while Duarte will go east to the Yuciapa XC Invitational.
By Bob Ramsey, on September 30th, 2010 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:Â 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
By Bob Ramsey, on September 30th, 2010 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
By Bob Ramsey, on September 29th, 2010 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 &Â JV Boys.
Coaches/parents/athletes – make this coverage better by sending race notes, photos and links to photo galleries to info@sgvtrackandfield.net
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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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