SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Cross Country

Monarchs take championship mettle into CIF finals

By Phillip Brents

Posted Nov. 21, 2003

The secret to winning in a cross country meet is simple: to place as many runners of one’s team as close as possible to the front of the race.

Each team may enter seven runners in a varsity race. Team scores are based on the place-finish of each team’s top five runners, with the position of the sixth runner to break any ties.

Not only is the object to place as many runners as close to the lead individuals as possible but also to “pack” them — or place them as close to one another as possible for maximum scoring potential. It’s that’s latter bit of race strategy that may be the most important of all.

The Monte Vista High School boys cross country team appears to have gotten all facets of its game down to perfection this season after recording a phenomenal 18-second spread to capture the low team score at this year’s Grossmont South League championship meet Nov. 15 at Harry Griffen Park.

Two of the top three place-finishers at the league finals were captured by runners from Helix — Babey Wagnew took first place with a time of 15:50 on the 3.1-mile course and Garrick Frew was third in 17:06. Five of the next six place-finishers were all from Monte Vista to clinch the team title.

Zach Norcross was fourth in 17:22, followed Monarch teammates Robbie McGrorty (fifth, 17:27), David Frehafer (sixth, 17:32), Michael Ramirez (seventh, 17:32) and Michael Wallace (ninth, 17:40).

Monte Vista emerged with a winning team score of 31 points to best runner-up Helix (48 points) and third-place Granite Hills (69 points).

That’s called the type of teamwork that translates into championships, as the second-ranked Monarchs hope to discover at Saturday’s San Diego Section Division II finals at Balboa Park’s Morley Field.

Norcross, Frehafer and Wallace are all returning veterans after finishing as their team’s second-, third- and fourth-place scorers at last year’s finals that saw Monte Vista place fourth overall in the division— two points behind final state qualifier Helix.

The top three teams earn berths in the state finals, scheduled Nov. 29 in Fresno.

Norcross (20th) and Frehafter (24th) both engineered top 25 finishes (out of 117 finishers) at last year’s CIF finals and will be hoping to improve on that Saturday.

The Monarchs enter Saturday’s finals ranked behind top-ranked University City and ahead of challengers Santana and Ramona.

Patrick Henry, San Pasqual and Helix were the division’s three state qualifiers last year.

Grossmont South League boys varsity recap
Granite Hills’ Josh Sandoval finished second in 17:03 while Valhalla’s Ky Madden was eighth in 17:37 and Mt. Miguel’s Chris Laguna was 10th in 17:45 to round out this year’s top 10 place-finishers. Steele Canyon finished fourth in the team standings with 104 points, followed by Valhalla with 132 points and Mt. Miguel with 156 points.

Grossmont North League boys varsity recap
West Hills placed five of the top six runners and six of the top nine to finish with a meet low score of 18 points. Billy Scott navigated the course in 16:58 as the North League’s top finisher, followed closely by teammate Robert Hernandez (second, 16:59) and fellow Wolf Pack runners Matt Noble (fourth, 17:35), Jeremy Root (fifth, 17:40) and B. Dunne (sixth, 18:12). Mike Focht was ninth in 18:27.

El Capitan finished second with a meet score of 41 points, followed by El Cajon Valley with 74 points. Santana and Grossmont did not score in the race.

Rounding out the North League top 10 runners were El Capitan’s Hector Gutierrez (third, 17:12), Kevin Victor (seventh, 18:15), Alan Rostamijam (eighth, 18:26) and Rhett Stous (10th, 18:27).

Grossmont South League girls varsity recap
Helix placed three of the top five individuals: race-winner Evon Willingham (14:21 for 2.4 miles), Jamie Marliere (fourth, 14:45) and April Montgomery (fifth, 14:54). The Highlanders finished with the meet’s low score of 40 points to edge a hard-charging Granite Hills squad (41 points). The Eagles had four runners place among the top 10, led by Ashli Sandoval (sixth, 14;57).

Valhalla’s Alicia Nugent (14:21) placed second among individuals while Monte Vista’s Holli Mayer (14:44) was third.

Grossmont North League girls varsity recap
West Hills placed four runners among the top 10 finishers in recording the low team score of 27 points. Elaine Gillespie (third, 14:33) and Kristen Peters (fourth14:37) both recorded top five finishes to lead teammates Johanna Fisherova (seventh, 14:58) and Lynette Simonds (10th, 15:21).

Santana’s Erin Price posted the top time of 14:11, followed by runner-up Randee Meek of Grossmont in 14:33 to edge West Hills’ Gillespie with the same time. Rounding out the top five place-finishers was El Capitan’s Cassie Atkinson with a fifth-place time of 14:56.

Also recording top 10 finishes were Santana’s Afton Siebern (sixth, 14;58), Grossmont’s Carly Minor (eighth, 15:06) and El Capitan’s Candis Vuletich (ninth, 15:09).

El Capitan (46 points) and Grossmont (54 points) followed in the team standings. Grossmont and El Cajon Valley did not score in the finals meet.