The Castle Park Trojans and Sweetwater Red Devils exchanged one-point victories last year to rule the boys cross country course as South Bay League co-champions.
This year’s initial encounter, last Friday at Rohr Park, was no less a high stakes venture. Castle Park entered the race undefeated in league dual meets — just as in 2009.
The Trojans won last year’s dual meet against the Devils, 27-28, but SuHi emerged with a 33-34 scoring edge at the ensuing league finals.
The same scenario is set up again this season, only with Castle Park appearing to hold more of an edge after racing past the Devils, 19-39, last Friday.
The Trojans enter Friday’s Metro Conference championship meet at Rohr Park 6-0 in league duals (the same record shared by CP’s junior varsity boys team).
“Last year at this time we were seen as the underdogs and we were able to pull through the regular dual meet season undefeated,” CP coach Juan Lozano said. “This year’s team has been able to stay focused, train smart and stay healthy. My boys team has one thing in mind right now: league champs.”
The Trojans placed four of the top five runners against Sweetwater, going 1-2-4-5-7 in team scoring to the Red Devils (3-6-8-10-13).
“We were able to get our top seven in front of their fifth guy and our top five in front of their third guy,” Lozano said. “We went out there to win the meet, and we were able to perform.”
Miguel Lopez, last year’s SBL champion as a freshman, won last Friday’s 5K race with a time of 17:04. He left the pack after the first mile and pulled in 24 seconds ahead of teammate Alex Garcia at the finish line.
George Martinez was third for Sweetwater in 17:32 but two CP runners followed: Jesus Ortiz (fourth, 17:51) and Cristian Flores (fifth, 18:00).
Friday’s conference finals step off at 2 p.m. The race schedule features the following races: boys varsity (2 p.m.), girls varsity (2:30 p.m.), boys JV (3 p.m.) and girls JV (3:30 p.m.).
In Mesa League dual competition, Otay Ranch finished undefeated on both the boys and girls sides.
