The Olympian High School boys cross country team made history last Friday by winning its first league championship; the Southwest High School girls cross country team wasn’t far behind after claiming its first league title since 1978.
Both teams’ success this season underscored the shift in the balance of power within the Metro Conference.
“This is my fourth year here and it’s been a whole team development process,” explained OHS head coach Jesse Matias, whose team finished undefeated in Mesa League competition. “At the end of last track season, while school was still in session, we got the team together and told them what was possible and what it would take to do it. The kids did a great job responding.”
The Eagles, unbeaten in dual meets, faced one last obstacle at last Friday’s Mesa League finals: top the entire field again in one race.
Olympian did just that, holding off a strong challenge by the Otay Ranch Mustangs, 39-46, to cement its history-making championship.
Otay Ranch coach Ian Cumming was complimentary of the victors. “At league finals, Olympian did a great job of holding off a strong effort from our team,” Cumming explained. “Olympian won (by seven points), but the time gaps were very small and both teams have every right to be very proud of themselves. We, as a team, extend a strong congratulations to Olympian on a fine effort to claim its first league championship.”
Eagle senior Sydney Leverett set the pace by winning the 5K boys varsity race in 16:15 to earn honors as Mesa League Runner of the Year. He was the top finish in the combined 83-deep Mesa League and South Bay League fields as well.
Olympian received a further boost when sophomore Diego Arriola finished in third place behind Eastlake senior Joshua Williams to give the Eagles two of the top three place-finishes in the Mesa League field. It was a foot race to the finish line: Williams (16:26.16) edged Arriola (16:26.67) by a mere half-second.
Mater Dei Catholic junior Salvador Rodriguez broke up the field with a fourth-place finish in 16:33. However, Otay Ranch began its charge with the next two placers: junior Rigoberto Baza (fifth, 16:42) and senior Isaiah Thomas (sixth, 16:47).
The Mustangs placed all seven of their runners ahead of Olympian’s fifth scorer, but the one-three finish provided by Leverett and Arriola proved too much for Otay Ranch to overcome.
Olympian held on tight with the next two finishers: junior Nathan Sanchez (seventh, 16:54) and senior Fil Punzalan (eighth, 16:56). That gave the Eagles four placers in the top eight.
Otay Ranch sophomore Cale Parise finished ninth in 16:58 and junior teammate Ryan Velasquez finished 12th in 17:12 to give Olympian and Otay Ranch four runners each among the top 12 finishers. However, the Eagles owned a key 19-32 scoring edge.
The Mustangs pushed three more runners across the finish line — sophomore Harold Thomas (17:13), junior Jose Nobles (17:21) and senior Chris Perdio (17:23) — in 14th, 15th and 16th places, respectively, but it proved only to make the final score closer.
“We definitely had our work cut out for us — the other teams in the league made us work hard for that banner,” Matias said. “We had a gap in our four and five runners Otay Ranch gave us a tough battle, but I’m definitely happy that we pulled it out at the end.”
The Mustangs’ five-man spread was in impressive 31 seconds while the Eagles’ five-man spread was 1:15.
Olympian finished the day with four first team all-league runners (top 10 finishers) while Otay Ranch had three and Eastlake, Mater Dei Catholic and Hilltop each had one.
Hilltop senior Ivan Lorona finished 10th in 17:09. Bonita Vista frosh sensation Toshin Agbede finished 11th in 17:10 while senior teammate Sebastian Negrete finished 13th in 17:13 to round out the individual (top 150 medalists.
Otay Ranch medalled all five of its scorers.
Leverett edged Williams by six seconds in the battle for top individual Metro bragging rights.
“My strategy was to keep with the top five people and, when I saw them dying out, I picked up the pace,” Leverett explained.
Girl power
Southwest’s secret to success was equally amazing. It was only recently that the school was unable to field a full team.
But on-campus recruiting efforts by team members, organization, hard work and dedication paid off with the school’s first league championship in nearly 40 years, according to coach Giovanni Medina.
“They knew what was expected of them, and did it,” Medina said. “The girls knew how important the league finals were going to be and they didn’t fold under pressure. They ran better than they had all season. It was our very best run of the season.”
Caste Park sophomore Liliana Hakim earned honors as South Bay League Runner of the Year with a time of 16:51. However, four of the next nine runners wore Southwest uniforms to boost the Raiders to a final 35-53 scoring edge over runner-up Sweetwater.
The Red Devils put the pressure on the Raiders by placing three runners among the top seven finishers. But Southwest sewed up the championship with five consecutive place-finishers from eighth through 12th place.
Southwest sophomore Fabiola Gonzalez placed second among league runners in 17:03 while Sweetwater sophomore Ashley Barajas was third in 17:21, followed by Montgomery junior Karen Murillo (fourth, 17:40).
Rounding out this year’s first team all-league team were Sweetwater sophomore Angelica Diaz (fifth, 17:50), Montgomery freshman Jasmine Hernandez (sixth, 17:56), Sweetwater junior Christinn London (seventh, 18:27), Southwest senior Reyna Flores (eighth, 18:56), Southwest sophomore Rikki Thomas (ninth, 18:59) and Southwest junior Erica Basa (10th, 19:01).
Southwest finished 1-7-8-9-10 in team scoring while Sweetwater finished 2-4-6-20-21.
Chula Vista, which placed all its five scorers among the top 19 finishers, placed fourth at league finals with 78 points. Montgomery was fifth with 83 points, followed by Mar Vista with 134 points and San Ysidro with 137 points.
Castle Park, which fielded just two runners for league finals, did not score in the meet.
Medalists included Southwest sophomore Nicole Diaz (11th, 19:13), Southwest senior Gabriella Santoyo (12th, 19:24), Chula Vista sophomores Jessika Cejudo (13th, 19:25) and Jennifer Bassig (14th, 19:25) and Southwest junior Jazmine Banaci (15, 19:26).
Sweetwater finished with three first team all-league runners.
The Raiders topped the 41-deep field with seven medalists.
