SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Cross Country

MV’s Swier, Otay Ranch Mustangs run to state meet

By Phillip Brents
Posted Nov. 28, 2003

Goliath awaits.

Mar Vista High senior Troy Swier can finally turn his focus to the state championship meet — and beyond — after winning his third consecutive San Diego Section Division II individual championship medal last Saturday at Balboa Park’s Morley Field.

Ranked second in the state in the division, Swier went out relaxed and finished with a 36-second margin of victory against runner-up Kyle Bruser of Patrick Henry. Swier did not intend to set any records — his time was the second-fastest of the day to Division I winner Babey Wagnew of Helix — and that was just fine by him.

Records would be nice in upcoming races — such as Saturday’s state finals at Woodward Park in Fresno and the subsequent Footlocker nationals.

“I was trying to be as conservative as possible. The more important races are still out there. I wanted to be as fresh as possible,” said Swier, who clocked 15:41 on the 3.1-mile course (17 seconds slower than the 15:24 he notched in recording the fastest time of the five boys races last year).

Swier bested Wagnew by 14 seconds in a memorable encounter last year to finish as the top two male runners in the section. Both runners’ times also met national standards.

Wagnew won this year’s Division I race in 15:34.

“It’s a great honor. It’s kind of sad but at the same time amazing. I can’t believe my high school career is almost over. I’ll remember this for years and years,” said Swier, who has committed to attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the fall.

Amazing and memorable are two words that Otay Ranch coach Ian Cumming and his team must surely be using to describe the Mustangs’ second place finish in the boys Division IV field that earned the first-year team a berth in Saturday’s state championships.

Otay Ranch finished 15 points behind defending champion La Jolla Country Day while besting the two state qualifying teams from last year (Coronado, third) and Bishop’s (fourth).
This year, there was a premium placed on team finish as only the top two teams in the division received state qualifying berths.

The South Bay League champion Mustangs — led by top 10 All-CIF finisher Ernesto Valdez (sixth, 17:53) — finished 12 points ahead of Coronado and 41 points ahead of Bishop’s.

Four Otay Ranch runners finished among the top 15 runners: sophomore Matt Danielson (12th, 18:15), freshman Ricky Pimentel (14th, 18:24) and sophomore Ryan Matias (15th, 18:24). Freshman Jesse Matias finished 28th in 19:12 as the team’s fifth scorer. Also completing the field of 85 finishers were Andre Negron (31st, 19:46) and Ivan Dallet (41st, 20:10).

Valdez, a sophomore, finished 44 seconds behind race winner Taylor Searles of Bishop’s and 40 seconds behind last year’s division champion Jake Ruzevick of Coronado.

The Mustangs entered last Saturday’s CIF finals ranked second in the division.

“It’s a great group. They’ve worked hard. They deserve it. They’ve worked hard for it,” Cumming said of the team’s history-making trip to Fresno.

Otay Ranch runners echoed their coach’s words.

“It feels really special — a real sense of accomplishment. With us being only freshmen and sophomores, no one else thought we could make it this far. It matched the hard work we put into it,” Danielson said.

The Bonita Vista boys team will not be joining Otay Ranch at the state finals, as hoped, after untimely illness decimated the team. With three key runners all under the weather, the Barons collectively got off to a sluggish start in the Division I race and were forced to play catch-up thereafter, finishing fifth — a distant 96 points behind third-place Rancho Buena Vista and the last state qualifying berth.

Senior Ryan Becijos, who finished fourth in the division last year, was one of those fighting the effects of a recent illness. He showed a lot of heart by engineering a spirited surge in the second mile to place 12th among individuals in the 149-strong race and secure the final of five individual state qualifying spots. The reigning Mesa League male Runner of the Year timed 16:39 — well below his finals effort of 16:11 last year.

Best of the rest
•Chula Vista’s Ivan Villareal cracked the top 15 list of finishers with a 14th place time of 16:40 in the boys Division I race.

•Bonita Vista’s Tiffany Caddell — the Mesa League’s female Runner of the Year — finished 15th in the girls Division I field in 17:36 (2.75 miles).

•Hilltop’s Selena Munoz — the South Bay League’s female Runner of the Year — placed 24th in 18:08 in the girls Division II field.

•Marian Catholic’s Shanice Howard (19:05) was 11th in the girls Division IV field, followed closely by Otay Ranch’s Jasmine Leija (19:12) in 13th place in the same race.

•The Mustangs finished fourth as a team in the girls Division IV field, with Natalie Dygert (20th, 20:17), Jennifer Amos (21st, 20:19) and Jasmine Schoonmaker (29th, 20:46) all posting top 30 finishers in the field of 67 runners.