The 2014 high school cross country season stepped off for most Metro Conference schools at last Friday’s annual Mustang Invitational at Rohr Park. They certainly had plenty of competition: Otay Ranch head coach Ian Cumming, who serves as meet director, said a total of about 1,600 runners competed in the nine race event.
“We had a lot of kids and a couple of ranked teams compete,” Cumming said. “It was a great day of racing. I want to thank all the coaches for bringing their teams to compete. I also want to thank the many volunteers who gave up their time to help make this meet possible as well as the The Phair Company for their continued sponsorship. It was a successful meet.”
Indeed, there was quite a bit of success for area runners — and teams — despite the hot, muggy conditions.
The Olympian Eagles claimed the top finish in the Blue Division boys junior varsity race while the Eastlake Titans scored an equally impressive second-place finish in the Blue Division girls junior varsity field.
Among varsity teams, defending Mesa League champion Eastlake placed fourth in the girls Blue Division ahead of league rivals Bonita Vista (fifth), Otay Ranch (seventh) and Olympian (eighth). Also, Olympian recorded a meteoric third-place finish in the boys Blue Division ahead of league rivals Otay Ranch (fifth), Eastlake (ninth) and Bonita Vista (10th).
Additionally, Otay Ranch finished third in the boys JV Blue Division and JV overflow races while Southwest finished fifth in the boys JV Silver Division.
In the spotlight
Among varsity individuals, Eastlake freshman Leyla McFarland strode to a second-place finish in the 88-deep, 2.3-mile girls Blue Division race with a time of 13:50.74 —20 seconds behind race-winner Christa Kloha of Westview.
McFarland edged Otay Ranch senior Darla Osuna (13:53.49) by three seconds for the top finishing spot among Metro Conference runners in the race to firmly place her name among runners to watch this season.
Osuna is a returning two-time state meet qualifier.
“It feels good,” McFarland said somewhat shyly.
A total of four Mesa League runners managed impressive top 10 finishes in the race. Bonita Vista junior Izabela Garcia-Arce placed eighth in 14:24.87 while Otay Ranch senior Alicia Huerta finished 10th in 14:32.82.
Eastlake scored 130 points as the top Metro team in the division — six points ahead of the fifth-place Barons and 28 points in front of the seventh-place Mustangs. Olympian was more distant with 192 points — 34 points behind Otay Ranch — while Sweetwater finished 13th (last in the field) with 367 points.
Steele Canyon won the division title with 66 points, followed in second place by Westview (97 points) and Scripps Ranch (103 points).
The Titans placed their five scorers among the top half of the field.
Place-finishers in the top third of the field also included Eastlake sophomore Emily Bonilla (13th, 14:39.90), Bonita Vista junior Marleen Aranda (16th, 14:42.61), Otay Ranch sophomore Eyra Alfaro (21st, 14:49.60) and Olympian senior Isabella Fernandez (22nd, 15:53.39).
Eastlake coach Mark Coziahr said his team is hoping to continue the momentum with which it finished last season.
“Our goals this year are definitely to repeat as Mesa League champions and have a strong showing at CIF,” he said.
Osuna, one of the conference’s most decorated runners, said she believes her team can compete for a league championship this season.
“We’re more of a new team this year, so we were just trying see where we were at and relax,” she explained. “I just wanted to relax out there and do the best I could, and it paid off, I got third place.”
Eastlake turned in a blockbuster showing in the girls JV race as freshmen Fiona Nielsen (first, 11:07.84) and Jennifer Pham (second, 11:11.22) finished at the top of the massive 254-deep, 1.65-mile Blue Division girls JV race.
As a team, the Titans placed four of their five scorers among the top 10 place-finishers and all five of their scorers among the top 13 individuals. The only team to better Eastlake in the race was Valhalla, which scored a division low 30 points to edge the Metro front-runner by four points.
Valhalla positioned itself for the win with a 3-4-5-6-12 scoring edge.
Bonita Vista junior Justine Holden (11:29.35) broke up the Eastlake and Valhalla monopoly by squeezing in a seventh-place individual finish.
The Titans’ five scorers also included freshman Mackenzie Kimmel (eighth, 11:31.55) and juniors Venia Pena (10th, 11:34.21) and Harper Moulton (13th, 11:41.45).
Among those placing among the top 10 percent of the finishers in the race were Bonita Vista junior Michelle Steele (19th, 11:49.67), Olympian junior Malaika Harris (21st, 11:52.61), Eastlake senior Alice Langford (23rd, 12:00.52) and Eastlake freshman Natalie Bautista (25th, 12:05.75).
Making strides
Olympian’s showing at last Friday’s Mustang Invitational had to be among the school’s best in the early season showcase event. The Eagles topped the Blue Division boys JV field with 58 points — 15 points ahead of runner-up Scripps Ranch — and finished 24 points ahead of longtime heavyweight Otay Ranch in the boys varsity field as the top Metro Conference representative.
“We had a great day,” OHS coach Jesse Matias offered in an understatement. “Our highlight was taking first in the JV race. It looks like it’s going to be a good season based on the start so far. I’m really happy with what we did today.”
Bonita Vista freshman Toshin Agbede led the boys JV race until the last half-mile when a trio of Valhalla runners overtook him to sweep the top three place-finishing positions. Agbede finished sixth in the 168-deep, 2.3-mile field with a time of 12:55.90.
However, as fine as Agbede’s finish was, it wasn’t the best turned in by a local runner. Olympian senior Fil Punzalan also passed the BV frosh sensation in the final stretch to post a fourth-place finish among individuals in 12:47.37.
Olympian sophomore Marlon Cortez placed seventh in 12:59.36 while classmate Tanner Claudio finished 10th in 13:06.04.
“It was our debut, we wanted to be one of the best teams here and we made a great impression by winning first place in the JV race,” Punzalan said.
“It was probably our first chance to make an impression in San Diego, among all the schools,” Cortez said. “I think we did a good job.”
Other runners to place in the top quarter of the field included Otay Ranch junior Rafael Patricio (11th, 13:06.85), Olympian junior Josiah Tamayo (14th, 13:10.83), Otay Ranch sophomore Jeremiah Suzara (15th, 13:11.18), Otay Ranch junior Derrick LeDesma (20th, 13:15.41), Bonita Vista freshman Armando Campos (21st, 13:15.71), Otay Ranch sophomore Evan LeDesma (13:17.83), Olympian junior Alan Gonzalez-Ramirez (23rd, 13:19.04), Eastlake freshman Cade Erickson (24th, 13:21.28), Otay Ranch junior Jose Nobles (26th, 13:22.61), Bonita Vista sophomore Anthony Sanchez (27th, 13:23.48), Bonita Vista freshman Gustavo Perez (29th, 13:29.85), Eastlake junior Alexander Samaniego (32nd, 13:38.27), Otay Ranch junior Jacob Mestre (34th, 13:39.63), Olympian junior Alexander Haygood (36th, 13:40.96), Olympian senior Tristin Tayson (38th, 13:43.51), Bonita Vista freshman Isaiah Labra (13:44.82), Olympian sophomore Agustin Richardson (40th, 13:45.47) and Otay Ranch junior Jordan Vargas (42nd, 13:46.37).
Sweetwater junior Carlos Aviles-Sullivan secured top finishing honors among Metro Conference runners in the 92-deep, 5K Blue Division boys varsity race with a time of 16:40.10. However, the Red Devils could only manage a 12th-place finish among the 13 scored teams in the division.
Olympian once again stole the show with its third-place finish among varsity teams. The Eagles scored 151 points — well behind team champion Westview (39 points) and runner-up Steele Canyon (69 points) — but well in front of fifth place Otay Ranch (175 points), ninth place Eastlake (193 points) and 10th place Bonita Vista (217 points). Defending South Bay League champion Sweetwater, with 282 points, finished only ahead of Monte Vista (317 points) in the division.
Olympian, in fact, notched two of the Metro’s top three individual place-finishers in the race as senior Sydney Leverett finished 13th in 17:23.01 and sophomore teammate Diego Arriola placed 16th in 17:26.71.
Bonita Vista senior Oscar Quintero finished 17th in 17:28.72 to place among the top 18 percent of the field.
Eastlake senior Joshua Williams (25th, 17:41.68), Otay Ranch junior Ryan Velasquez (26th, 17:42.20), Otay Ranch senior Isaiah Thomas (27th, 17:50.66) and Eastlake senior Andre Lobato (28th, 17:52.40) all managed to slip into the top third of finishers.
One race does not make a season, of course, and the Eagles’ challengers will be out in force as the action unfolds in the coming weeks.
“We have a real strong group of kids here,” EHS boys coach David Koopman said. “We have some big shoes to fill with the loss of Oliver Abundez to graduation but we’re hoping some of the younger kids can help fill them. We have a talented group of freshmen, great returners. We’re hoping to win league and make some noise at CIF.”
“We’re looking forward to a great season,” BVHS coach Matthew Seat explained. “We have a lot of great talent and it’s showing already in our first race. We’re hoping our boys team can extend its reign as league champions. We’re hoping the girls team can do the same thing and get that league banner.”
Notepad
Southwest freshman Jose Luis Mora finished 11th in the 130-deep boys JV Silver Division race with a time of 13:26.30 while Olympian sophomore Quentin Cruz-Boyer finished sixth in the 139-deep boys JV overflow race with a time of 13:49.21.
Olympian finished third in the JV boys overflow race with 76 points, trailing team champion Scripps Ranch (21 points) and runner-up Point Loma (59 points). Eastlake finished fourth with 103 points while Otay Ranch was fifth with 117 points.
