By Bob Ramsey, on September 23rd, 2010 With league competition beginning next week for all of the area teams, only a third will be competing this weekend, but they’ll be spread from Orange Country to L.A’s Griffith Park to the big, big Stanford Invite
 Marissa Scott (L) & Lexie Jackson The top local action should come from the top local teams, as Claremont and Bonita, along with Diamond Bar travel to the big Dana Hills Invite – where last year the Bearcats frosh duo of Lexie Jackson and Marissa Scott stepped up for the first time with a one, two finish over this fast, three mile, net downhill course. They’ll be looking to step up further this year, and the Claremont guys will take several ranked teams in the D2 race.
The largest local group will be at the Sunny Hills Invite – a smaller meet run over a hilly three mile course at Fullerton’s Craig Park. Baldwin Park, Bishop Amat, Charter Oak, Rowland, and San Dimas are all scheduled to compete, with Rowland’s athletes having the best local showing in last year’s event.
Last year’s win at the Bell-Jeff Invite at Griffith Park was the first step on a road that led to a league championship and CIF spot for Los Altos. The Conquerors will return to this hilly, 3 mile course, along with Ganesha, Bassett, Webb, and Pomona Catholic.
The famous Stanford Invite was the place for a breakthrough performance by West Covina’s Jessica Mendez. Jessica has gone on to compete at Cal Poly Pomona, but her alma mater and Azusa will once again make the trip to test themselves againt some of the best teams on the West Coast.
By Bob Ramsey, on September 23rd, 2010 There were only seven seniors on last year’s final ESGV Top Ten Lists, but (at least) six have gone on to compete in college – four at NCAA Div 1 schools, one at Cal Poly Pomona (Div. 2) and one at Azusa Pacific, which competes in the NAIA.
 Jayson Perez 2008 Area Athlete of the Year Jayson Perez (South El Monte) has joined South Hills’ Ashley Holguin at D1 Cal State Fullerton. State Finalist Brittnie Munoz (Rosemead) moved on to Loyola Marymount in Westchester, CA, and Glendora’s Austin Goodheart is at UC Santa Barbara. Jessica Mendez (West Covina) has made the trip down the 10 to Cal Poly Pomona, while Paul Balderas (Diamond Ranch) is now an APU Cougar.
All of the athletes except Balderas (who started the week before) competed in last weekend’s UC Riverside Invitational (Men’s results, Women’s results) with the best performance coming from Perez, who was Fullerton’s number 2 on the day. Jayson went under 25:00 in his first 8k, running 24:59 for 27th place, and finishing just behind LMU’s Thomas Finnigan (Glendora ’08), the 2007 Area Athlete of the Year.
Our local athletes will have a chance to step up this weekend as several travel to Stanford and Oklahoma State – the two top early-season college XC meets. We’ll keep you posted on their progress.
By Bob Ramsey, on September 22nd, 2010  L to R: Nick Luber, Colin Domonoske, AK Metoyer, Paul Ross, and Jimmy Baeskens. (missing Aric Crowell and Henry Falotico) The Claremont boys strong second place finish in Saturday’s Woodbridge Invite propelled them to the top of Div. II in this week’s CIF Southern Section Divisional Rankings. Glendora, after a rough night the same race, switched places in the rankings with the Wolfpack, falling from the top spot to fourth.
The Bonita girls also ran well at Woodbridge, with a second place finish in their divisional race, moving them from ninth to eighth in the rankings.
Claremont and Bonita both compete this weekend at the big and very strong Dana Hills Invite, while the Tartans will line up next in their first Baseline League meet on Wednesday, September 29th, where they’ll face Div. I #3 Rancho Cucamonga. The Wolfpack and Bearcats also face new league challenges that week, moving into the Sierra and Hacienda leagues, respectively.
By Bob Ramsey, on September 20th, 2010 Woodbridge is a massive meet – with over two hundred schools competing in four divisions from 1:00-10:00 pm. Held over a new course at Estancia HS in Costa Mesa, the 30th edition of the meet saw state level performances from the Claremont boys, the Bonita girls, and Glendora’s Lauren Justus.
 The featured events are the elite Sweepstakes races, and on the boys side, CIF 4th ranked Claremont earned their championship credentials, finishing second to only State #1 Arcadia with a team time of 75:33. Senior Paul Ross (5th – 14:36) was followed by three senior teammates in the top 20 of the team scoring: Henry Falotico (14:51), Colin Domonoske (15:04), & A.K. Metoyer (15:05). This excellent performance fulfills the promise the Wolfpack showed last year before being decimated by the Swine Flu.
Top-ranked Glendora (78:15) was 12th in the same race. Missing three of their top 6 – two with illness and one who fell and DNF’d, the Tartans were again led by senior Anthony Castro (14:52 – 17th). In the earlier Rated Race, South Hills were 18th in 80:58, led by senior Jonathan Flores’ 15:45.
 Lauren Justus (L) Returning Area Athlete of the Year Lauren Justus (Glendora) was the only local girl in the elite races, but she more than held her own with a strong 5th place/17:04 finish in the Sweeps. Taking a huge step forward, Lauren broke her track PR’s for 1600m and 3200m en route to her 3 mile finish. St. Lucy’s and Carly Lake (Charter Oak) did not compete as scheduled.
Most area schools ran in the smaller divisions that began the day, where the top performance was the Bonita girls 2nd place finish in the White, or 4th division, and with two runners out with illness. Led by soph Marissa Scott’s 17:59 win, the Bearcats had a team time of 93:41, 23rd best overall. Marissa was followed closely to the line by teammates Lexi Jackson (So – 18:17 for 3rd) and Mikayla Flores (Fr – 18:21 for 4th) – and those times were, respectively, 57th, 93rd and 100th on the day.
Another strong performance came from the South Hills girls, who finished second in the Red/3rd division with a time of 98:00. Their top performer was junior Alex Borunda – 18:54 for 11th.
Complete Results are here (All pdf’s!)Â Runnerspace video coverage is here.
Area Top 10 and individual Top 10 Finishers, and team leaders after the jump. Continue reading Woodbridge: Claremont Boys and Lauren to the Top
By Bob Ramsey, on September 20th, 2010  Arroyo soph Sam Garcia and West Covina senior Lovella Perea were the top local performers at the long-standing Rosemead Invitational, the SGV’s answer to Woodbridge. Like the bigger meet to the south, this 40 team event featured a fast, flat, 3-mile course, with the final races run under the lights.
Garcia was 4th in his grade division in 15:43, and was followed by three teammates in the Top 10, while Perea was 6th among the senior girls on the re-designed, fully 3 mile course. Top local finishers by place both were in the frosh division: Daniel Harrigan-Cota (Walnut) 16:56 for 2nd and Erica Loberg (West Covina) 19:42 for 4th.
Complete Results are here.
Top Ten Finishers by Division, Top 10 overall, and team leaders after the jump. Continue reading Rosemead: Sam and Lovella Lead
By Bob Ramsey, on September 17th, 2010  The second week of the season will see most area teams in two meets – the Woodbridge Invite at Estancia HS in Costa Mesa and the Rosemead Invite. Both meets are run over flat, 3 mile courses, both run many of their races under the lights, both finish in stadiums this year, and both feature local teams.
Woodbridge is a bit bigger and a bit more prominent. The athletes compete mostly by class and division here, with the exception of the elite Rated and Sweepstakes races at the end of the evening. The East SGV will be well represented under the lights. For the girls, St. Lucy’s and will contest the Rated race while Lauren Justus (Sr, Glendora) and Charter Oak Junior Carly Lake will run in the Sweeps race. The top-ranked Glendora boys will be joined by by 4th ranked Claremont in the Sweeps race, while South Hills looks to make their mark in the Rated race.
In all, twelve local schools will participate, including 9th ranked Bonita, who elected not to run in the evening races, Bassett, Covina, Damien, Diamond Bar; Northview, and San Dimas. Update: Quick summaries of the event’s bigger races will be posted here – complete results often take awhile.
Rosemead will feature a revised course this year and some bigger names and fast rising local programs. 39 schools, including nine from the ESGV, will take part. Los Altos, Arroyo, and West Covina show the most early promise of among the guys local entrants, while the girls event should be wide open.
The event is contested in a single division and by class and will also include athletes from host school, Gabrielino, Walnut, Azusa, Garey and Baldwin Park.
COACHES, ATHLETES & PARENTS! Help us make our coverage better – please send us photos, links to photo galleries, and race notes (breakthroughs, bad days, injuries etc) to info@sgvtrackandfield.net
By Bob Ramsey, on September 15th, 2010 The Glendora boys, off of their strong performance in their opening Bronco Invitational, moved into the top spot in this week’s CIF Southern Section Divisional Rankings. They had been ranked behind Loyola in the opening Div. II poll.
Claremont moved from third to fourth on the same list, largely on the strength of Saugus’ performance on Saturday against Loyola in Cerritos.
The Bonita girls, who open their season this week, remain ninth on the Div. III rankings.
All three teams will be in action at this Saturday’s Woodbridge Invitational, with the Tartans and Wolfpack in the Sweepstakes race.
By Bob Ramsey, on September 13th, 2010  Glendora's Kelly Hernandez (L) & Anthony Castro Nineteen of the 35 schools of the East San Gabriel Valley swung into action this week, led by Glendora’s double win (and double course records!) at the Bronco Invite in Chino. Nine schools, led by Rowland and Los Altos kicked off their season at Bosco Tech Invite in Irwindale, while the balance of the locals led off at the Fastback Shootout at Mt.SAC, the Laguna Hills Invite, and the Great Cow Run in Cerritos.
The top local efforts came from Glendora seniors Anthony Castro and Lauren Justus, who both set course records at the Bronco meet.
This week’s Top Ten Performers after the jump. Continue reading Week 1 Wrap Up: Glendora Out Fast
By Bob Ramsey, on September 13th, 2010 On the XC season’s first weekend, the biggest event for local schools was the Bosco Tech XC Invite, contested over a flat and fast 3 mile (4828m) course at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale, with the top local performances coming from Rowland boys – led by junior Nick Augulo Rivera (oops), with a 80:14 – 6th place finish, and the Los Altos girls, who were 13th 103:10 led by senior Nicolette Garcia’s 19:33 effort.
This event competes by school grade, and top action for the girls came in the Senior race, where Northview’s Elizabeth Esparza outleaned Bassett’s Zahina Rios for 9th place, with both timed at 19:21. The highest local finisher was Anna Trejo (Jr – Nogales), who was 3rd in the Junior race in 19:25.
Among the guys, the top performers and finishers were the Junior pair from Rowland, race winner Rivera (15:34) and second placed Jake Augulo (15:37).
Other top ten performers included Senior Benjamin Alvarez, (Row) 10th in 15:41;Â junior Delia Choi (Row) 9th in 19;59;Â soph Kevin Mejia (Covina) 5th in 16:22; and frosh Jusitn Spivey (LA) 10th in 17:17
Complete results (pdf’s!) are here, coverage by the SGV Tribune is here.
Local Top 10 lists and Top Finishers by team after the jump. Continue reading Bosco Tech: Rowland & Los Altos Lead the Way
By Bob Ramsey, on September 13th, 2010 Glendora expected to do well this year, returning their top 4 from their 2009 CIF Championship and State runner up team, and returning area Athletes of the year Anthony Castro and Lauren Justus. And they met expectations as they opened the year at the Bronco Invite, held at Prado Park in Chino over a somewhat slow 5000 meter (3.11 mile) course.
 Allison Mayo, Alex Borunda & Chloe Arriaga (L-R) Lauren and Anthony both won by large margins, setting Course Records (17:47 & 15:11) in the process. But the surprise, at least to those outside the team, was the girls team, which won by a larger margin than the boys. Lauren and fellow senior Allison Mayo (9th in 19:43) have been joined by quartet of strong frosh, led by Emily Hoey, who was 10th in 19:50. The guys, missing their number 3 man, placed four others in the top 10: Kelly Hernandez (Sr) 2nd in 15:30, Austin Mendoza (Jr) 8th in 15:54, and Ross Brunett (Jr) 10th in 15:58. The Glendora “B” varsity team, led by junior Brandon Nelli’s 16:44, finished 5th.
South Hills had a strong day, with the boys finishing 3rd and the girls 4th. The guys were led by senior Gilbert Mundo’s 9th place 15:57 effort, while Alex Borunda (Sr) was the top girl at 19:33 for 4th place.
Diamond Bar was 8th for both teams. The guys, missing a likely scorer, and featuring several newcomers, were led by senior James McCreary, who ran 16:24 despite falling twice. The girls were led by fast improving soph Kelly Kuo at 20:19.
San Dimas best effort came from soph Alyssa Martinez at 20:19, and their top guy was Kyle Smith at 17:21.
 F/S Winner Mike Duke In the lower levels, Glendora’s Mike Duke-Fr (1st 16:46), Garrett Hernandez-So (5th 17:01 ) and Ryan Sanchez-So (7th 17:12 ) had top ten finishes in the Frosh/Soph division. They were joined at the front by South Hills’ sophs Chris Escobedo (4th 16:57), Jason Diaz (8th 17:20) and Victor Garcia (10th 17:24). In the girls JV division, Carly Sargent (Soph – SH) was 4th in 21:34 and Michelle Chang (So – DB) was 6th in 21:48
Full results are here, and a video coverage from Tom Kiss of the SGVTrib Group is here. You can view a Glendora-oriented photo gallery from Steve Brunett here.
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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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