SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Cross Country

South Bay League championship race takes exciting new turn

By Phillip Brents

CHULA VISTA, Oct. 16, 2003 -- Surprise, surprise.

Just when most spectators thought the South Bay League girls cross country title had been narrowed to a two team race, a third team decided to jump on board to make the championship banner chase a bit more exciting.

Hilltop, Otay Ranch and drum roll, please ... Castle Park are now the league’s three front-runners with a fourth team — Marian Catholic — waiting in the wings.

Otay Ranch placed three of the top four runners in its dual against Castle Park on Oct. 16 at Discovery Park but was unable to hold on to what was an early seven-point lead (through three scoring positions). The Trojans responded b y storming four consecutive runners across the finish line before the hosts could reply with their fourth scorer to record a remarkable a 27-29 victory.

The clerk of course had to recount the results three times to make sure there was no mistake.

There wasn’t: Otay Ranch fell from the undefeated ranks to 2-1 in league duals — a figure now matched by Castle Park.

Hilltop entered its dual last week against Marian Catholic with a 2-0 league record.

Castle Park sophomore Veronica Gonzales (pictured above) led the field with a time of 15:33 on the high-grade hill course, followed by Mustang sophomore Jasmine Leija in 15:56.

Jasmine Schoonmaker (16:56) and Jennifer Amos (17:19) crossed the finish line next for Otay Ranch to give the Mustangs three of the race’s top four individuals but the hosts could not produce another scorer until four Castle Park runners had sped by to cinch the win.

“Castle Park put it all together on the girls side to beat us. They had outstanding individual and team efforts. They ran well on the boys side, too. I am still proud of my team. We raced hard. We will continue to work hard and see what happens down the road,” Otay Ranch coach Ian Cumming said.

The Mustangs’ Oct. 31 dual meet against Hilltop at Discovery Park will now determine which team — if either — enters the conference finals with an unscathed record.
The same goes for the Otay Ranch-Hilltop boys meet.

The Mustangs defeated Castle Park, 19-38, in the boys meet to advance to 3-0 in league duals. The Mustangs — led by medalist Matt Danielson’s time of 17:52 -- pushed across four of the top five (and five of the top six) finishers in the matchup. Ernesto Valdez (18:30), Ryan Matias (18:53), Rickey Pimental (19:12) and Andre Negron (10:49) rounded out the five Otay Ranch scorers to finish in front of Castle Park's second scorer.

In a simultaneously run Mesa League encounter, Bonita Vista swept Eastlake by scores of 18-43 (boys), 25-42 (girls) and 15-50 (boys JV).

For the Barons, Ryan Becijos and Julian Zamora (pictured at left) finished nearly chest-to-chest in 17:41, with Becijos inching out his teammate for the win. Tiffany Caddell won the girls race in 15:20 while John Edwards was the JV medalist in 19:18.

Becijos and Zamora finished nine seconds ahead of Eastlake’s John Stubbs (17:50). The Barons placed three more runners — Bersain Gutierrez (18:04), Jared Purkey (18:31) and Austin Jett (18:34) — ahead of the Titans’ No. 2 man Kyle Maynes (18:34).

Bonita Vista placed four of the top five runners in the girls race against Eastlake, with the Titans' Sara McKinney earning runner-up honors to Caddell in 15:52. Following for the Barons were Jessi Tinsley (15:57), Kristin Ross (16:02) and Angel Torres (16:36) in front of Eastlake’s Ashley Ronco (16:41) and Leticia Flores (16:51).

In a Mesa League dual contested at Rohr Park, Sweetwater edged Chula Vista, 28-29, in a battle that came down to fourth place as SuHi’s Azael Gomez out-stepped his Spartan opponent, Roberto Hernandez, at the finish line.

“Any change in place throughout the race would have changed the team score. Azael holding off Hernandez for fourth place was a real key for us,” Red Devils coach Tim Latham said.

Chula Vista (2-0) defeated Sweetwater (1-2) in the girls varsity race.