Otay Ranch High School cross country coach Ian Cumming is a strong supporter of sportsmanship and that extends beyond the athletes competing on the course.
Cumming, as meet director of last Friday’s 21st annual Mustang/Phair Co. Invitational at Rohr Park, would like to personally thank all of the athletes and coaches who participated in the meet, the Phair Company for its many years of support to the meet and also to youth in the South Bay area and finally, a special thank you to the many friends, parents, community members and Otay Ranch team members for all the help they provided to make the meet not only possible but one of the best meets in the Southern California area.
Last Friday’s invitational that attracted nearly 1,100 student-athletes to Chula Vista scored high marks on all fronts but particularly in terms of sportsmanship.
Winning was important but not the sole object of why they pushed themselves to their physical and mental limits under extremely trying weather conditions that featured elevated temperatures and high humidity levels.
As athletes crossed the finish line and meandered through the finishing chute to pick up their medals, runners embraced and offered congratulations to those immediately ahead of them as well as those behind them.
For many runners, just finishing was a personal victory.
For those runners who did achieve victory, they instantly became role models for their peers for the remainder of the season.
Front runners
For many Metro Conference runners, last Friday’s meet served as their season debut.
Stepping off the season at the head of the local pack were Eastlake sophomore Leyla McFarland and Castle Park junior Liliana Hakim, both of whom finished second in their respective races, along with Sweetwater senior Carlos Aviles-Sullivan, who placed third in his race to earn honors as the highest Metro boys finisher on the day.
McFarland, the reigning Mesa League cross country champion, finished second in the Blue Division girls varsity race with a time of 14:03. She placed 10 seconds behind race winner Carlene Masar, a sophomore from Steele Canyon.
McFarland, who placed three seconds ahead of third-place finisher Giovanna Da Silva, a freshman from Scripps Ranch, helped lead the Lady Titans to a runner-up finish in the team standings behind champion Steele Canyon.
The duel between McFarland and Masar has developed into a friendly rivalry. The duo paired in last spring’s 1600-meter prelims and finals races at the San Diego Section track championships, with McFarland placing ahead of Masar by 10 seconds in the prelims and Masar edging McFarland by five seconds in the finals.
“I knew how fast she was after running against her last year,” McFarland said. “I didn’t go as hard as I think I could have.”
McFarland, who finished fifth at last year’s Division I cross country finals and 34th at the state championship meet, said her personal goals for this season are to score personal records in all her races and to help her team qualify for the state meet as a team.
Though she did not earn a PR last Friday (she finished 13 seconds behind last year’s effort on the same course), she promised the best is yet to come this season.
“This is just the start of the season,” she said. “I still have high hopes for everything this year.”
Masar finished seventh at last year’s Division II section cross country finals en route to a 34th place-finish at the state meet.
“I’m hoping to make it back to state and place higher, hopefully break the top 20,” she said of her goals for this season.
Masar appears to be making good on her words so far. She opened the season by winning the girls sophomore race at the Wolf Pack Invitational on Aug. 28.
The Lady Cougars, who finished third as a team at last year’s Division II section finals, topped Eastlake 34-56 in the scoring column at last Friday’s meet. Valhalla finished third with 100 points, followed by Bonita Vista with 101 points. Steele Canyon placed its top three runners among the race’s top five finishers and all five scorers among the top 13 finishers.
The Lady Cougars’ five-person spread was 48 seconds in the 74-deep field.
“I was very happy with how we ran as a team,” explained Masar, who bettered her time by 32 seconds from last year’s Mustang Invitational to win this year’s event. “The girls have been training really hard coming into the season. On paper, we’re definitely stronger (than last year).”
The same might be said in regard to the Lady Titans, who return five all-league runners and have added a key transfer to their line-up for this season.
Eastlake finished 2-6-8-16-24 in scoring at last Friday’s meet. Junior Mara Acord, an all-CIF transfer from Mission Vista, placed sixth among individuals in 14:25. Following her across the finish line were junior Emily Bonilla (eighth, 14:27), senior Mia Costello (16th, 14:45) and senior Harper Moulton (24th, 15:02).
Acord placed seventh at last year’s Division IV section finals to qualify for the state championship meet.
Making strides
Hakim, the reigning South Bay League girls cross country champion, placed second in the 86-deep Silver Division girls varsity race with a time of 14:23. She finished 16 seconds behind race winner Olivia Wade, a freshman from Point Loma. Hakim finished 11 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Gwendalyn Gibson, a junior from Ramona.
Hakim won last spring’s 1600 and 3200 distance events at the league track finals. She appears to be on track for good things this fall after finishing two minutes ahead of the time she posted at last year’s Mustang Invitational.
“I want to go to state this year,” Hakim stated matter-of-factly. “I hit the barrier last year, it was bad. My training wasn’t good because of the transition of coaches. But this year my training is much better.”
Southwest junior Fabiola Gonzalez (14th, 15:41) was the next Metro runner to finish after Hakim, followed by Mar Vista junior Stephany Arroyo (18th, 15:46) and Chula Vista freshman Pricil Betancourt (22nd, 16:02).
Chula Vista (fifth), Southwest (sixth), Mar Vista (ninth), Castle Park (10th) and San Ysidro (11th) rounded out the field among the 11 scoring teams in the division behind team champion Point Loma, runner-up Ramona, third place Our Lady of Peace and fourth place Hoover.
Seeing red
Aviles-Sullivan, last year’s South Bay League individual boys champion, navigated the 5K course in 16:52 to trail race winner Luis Pina, a junior from Steele Canyon, and runner-up Alex Barr, a junior from Scripps Ranch.
Pina won in 16:40 while Barr crossed the finish line in second in 16:47 to win a hotly contested duel with Aviles-Sullivan down the final stretch run.
Bonita Vista sophomore Ethan Lamprecht finished sixth in 17:08 as the top Mesa League runner in the 73-deep race while helping the Barons to a fifth-place team finish. Sweetwater finished ninth out of the 10 scoring teams in the race.
For Aviles-Sullivan, it was a return to competitive cross country action after suffering a stress fracture in his foot at the tail end of last season. The Sweetwater distance runner missed last year’s San Diego Section championship meet due to the injury and missed a sizable portion of the following track and field season while recovering from the injury.
He has set a goal to complete what he started last season.
“I want to place top three in every race and win CIF Division I,” the SuHi harrier explained. “I was really disappointed (by last year’s injury) but I knew I had to keep going. I knew I couldn’t let my teammates down. We want to repeat as league champions.”
Pina placed second at last year’s Grossmont Hills League finals. He went on to finish 12th at the Division II section finals as a sophomore to qualify as an individual for the state meet (where he finished 71st in the field of 194 runners).
He appears ready to pick up where he left off last season.
“I came in with the mind-set ready to win,” Pina said. “I have team goals to win league and win CIF and make it to the state championship together. My personal goals are just to PR.”
The Cougars recorded a division low 51 points, placing three runners among the top 12 finishers and all five scorers among the top 15 finishers to out-distance Valley Center (second place, 82 points), Valhalla (third place, 90 points) and Otay Ranch (fourth place, 100 points) in the team standings at last Friday’s invitational.
Silver lining
Monte Vista senior Ty Lopez won the 95-deep Silver Division boys varsity race in 16:38, finishing 14 seconds ahead of runner-up Awal Hussen, a senior from Hoover. Lopez was in contention to turn in a star-spangled season in 2014 before being sidelined by a knee injury with about a quarter of the season remaining on the schedule.
Lopez’s goals are to complete what he started last season.
“I want to win CIF and league and I want to get past state and go to regionals,” said Lopez, who bested last year’s time at the Mustang Invitational by eight seconds. “This is my first race this year, so I am one-for-one.”
Castle Park’s Eduardo Rodriguez was the top Metro runner in the Silver Division boys varsity race with a 12th place finish in 18:12. Southwest sophomore Jacob Fierro was 15th in 18:26 while Chula Vista senior Daniel Mondragon was 23rd in 18:46 to pace runners from the South Bay League.
Chula Vista was the top team finisher in the division in fifth place with 157 points. Castle Park finished in seventh place with 208 points while Southwest was ninth with 215 points, followed by San Ysidro in 11th place with 252 points and Mar Vista in 13th place with 311 points. Fourteen teams scored in the race.
The chase begins
Joining Costello, McFarland and Bonilla as all-league runners on the Eastlake girls team are sophomore Fiona Nielson and senior Celiese Zasueta. All have earned all-league recognition at some point in their careers, noted EHS head coach Mark Cozaihr. Zasueta won a league championship as a sophomore.
“We’re looking to have a good season,” Cozaihr explained. “We were league co-champions with Bonita Vista last year and they have a lot of strong runners returning. It should be an exciting league season. We placed sixth at CIF last year. Our goal is to crack the top three in Division I this year.”
The Lady Titans out-dueled fourth place Bonita Vista by 45 points in the team standings. Olympian finished sixth in the team standings with 156 points while Otay Ranch was eighth with 204 points and Sweetwater was 10th with 284 points among the 10 scoring teams in the division.
Otay Ranch junior Eyra Alfaro finished seventh among individuals with a time of 14:25, followed by Bonita Vista senior Izabel Garcia-Arce (ninth, 14:29) and Olympian sophomore Alexandra Martinez (12th, 14:40).
Bonita Vista had three runners place among the top 18 finishers. Also finishing strong for the Lady Barons were senior Marleen Aranda (15th, 14:44) and sophomore Sarah Suarez (18th, 14:47).
Bonita Vista head coach Matt Seat remains enthused about the potential of his team.
“The biggest thing (to come out of last year’s league co-championship) is that our numbers have doubled,” Seat explained. “This year’s team may be the biggest team Bonita Vista has ever had in terms of numbers. We have some senior girls who have excelled as freshmen, sophomores and juniors and are now looking to end their senior year strong.”
Olympian (sixth), Otay Ranch (eighth) and Sweetwater (10th) rounded out the team standings in the division.
Busting loose
Otay Ranch proved to be the top finishing Metro team in the Blue Division boys varsity race after out-pointing Bonita Vista by 18 points. The Barons had the highest individual place-finisher (Lamprecht) but the Mustangs had the tighter scoring pack with a five-man spread of 22 seconds.
Otay Ranch’s five scorers included seniors Rigo Baza (16th, 17:35) and Ryan Velasquez (17th, 17:36), junior Cale Parise (20th, 17:46), senior Ryan Andrews (21st, 17:49) and junior Jeremiah Suzara (26th, 17:57).
Rounding out Bonita Vista’s five scorers were sophomores Toshin Agbede (18th, 17:39) and Armando Campos (23rd, 17:52), freshman Jonathan Kelly (27th, 18:01) and junior Matthew Borja (45th, 18:46).
The Barons had no seniors running in the race.
“We have a strong young boys team ready to make some noise,” Seat noted.
Defending Mesa League champion Olympian went 13-30-31-48-51 in scoring to place behind both Otay Ranch and Bonita Vista. The Eagles placed 73 points behind the Mustangs and 55 points behind the Barons.
Junior Diego Arriola led Olympian across the finish line with a 13th place-finish in 17:29.
Cumming remained pleased by the performance of his team — both on the boys and the girls sides — at last Friday’s meet.
“Our boys started out well at Mustang Invitational and I believe they have a lot of room for improvement,” the ORHS coach explained. “They have a group of 10 to 12 athletes who have worked hard throughout the summer and have become very close as a team. This will help them to run very well as the season progresses.
“Our girls have a smaller pack of runners who worked very hard in the summer and showed it with fast workouts and a quality race (last) Friday. We have some other returnees, who will be very good as the season advances, and finally very good and talented newcomers who will play into the mix. I am excited about what both teams are capable of doing at the end of the season.”
Runners world
Last Friday’s meet featured nine races, including five junior varsity races and four varsity races.
Monte Vista freshman Damien De La Cruz won the Silver Division boys JV race in 12:43 while Valley Center junior Edry Samano won the Blue Division boys JV race in 12:40.
Ramona sophomore Ally Luna won the Silver Division girls JV race in 10:59 while Eastlake junior Cassandra Luna won the 225-deep Blue Division girls JV race in 11:19.
Point Loma freshman Roman Partlow won the boys JV overflow race in 13:42.
Eastlake junior Jeffrey Page finished second in the Blue Division boys JV race in 12:50, followed by Otay Ranch junior Evan LeDesma in fourth place in 12:53 and Bonita Vista sophomore Gustavo Perez in seventh place in 13:04.
South Bay Invitational set to step off Sept. 25
This year’s field includes 40 teams, the largest since the event moved to Chula Vista’s Rohr Park, according to meet director Tim Latham. “We’ve got some good teams, we’ve got some little teams, it’s five races, one division, everybody goes up against everybody, which should give a truer indication of where teams are at,” he said.
The five races include:
3:30 p.m. – junior varsity girls
4:10 p.m. – boys frosh/soph
4:40 p.m. – varsty girls
5:10 p.m. – varsity boys
5:40 p.m. – junior varsity boys
Medals will be presented to the first 35 finishers in each race.
