SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Cross Country

Spartans speed past Aztecs in league opener

By Phillip Brents
Posted Oct. 5, 2004

After his team captured top honors in its division at the season-opening Mustang Invitational, Montgomery cross country coach Ruben Ledesma had to have a brighter outlook on this season. That view got a bit wider view last Friday as the Aztecs took on preseason favorite Chula Vista in the teams’ opening Mesa League dual meet.

“They way we are looking at this is that it is a two-part season. One half is based on the dual meets. The other half is based on the conference finals. We’re looking to see what we have to do to get where we want to be for the second half,” Ledesma said in handicapping last Friday’s encounter.

After Chula Vista’s 26-37 dual win at Rohr Park, it appears Montgomery — and the rest of the Mesa League — has it work cut out for them.

The Spartans pushed across five of the top seven runners and seven of the top 10 finishers to leave no doubt as to which was the superior team on the afternoon. Closing that gap will be the Aztecs’ focus by the time the conference meet convenes next month.

Montgomery’s Christopher Kaeg edged Chula Vista’s Ivan Villarreal for top finishing honors on the 3.06-mile course (the teams ran the South Bay Invitational course still marked from the previous week). Kaeg finished in 16:30 — four seconds ahead of Villarreal. But the remaining runners were strung along the course. The top five runners were separated by 1:16; the top 10 runners by 1:41.

Chula Vista’s Robert Hernandez finished third in 16:46, followed by Montgomery’s Jonathan Alcala in 17:25. The Spartans captured the scoring race by pushing across the next three runners: Martin Jimenez (fifth, 17:46), Gilbert Rivas (sixth, 17:50) and Hector Diaz (seventh, 17:55).

Montgomery’s third scorer — Eric Delgado (eighth, 17:56) — came in after Chula Vista’s fifth man had already crossed the finish line. Two more Spartans — Francisco Solano (ninth, 17:59) and Mikkel Conver (10th, 18:11) — earned time marks on the recording tape before the Aztecs could get their fourth scorer, Gary Hodgson (11th, 18:13) across the line.

Chula Vista finished with a five-man spread of 1:21; Montgomery’s five-man scoring spread was 2:23.
The Aztecs’ fifth scorer, Christian Vazquez, finished 13th in 18:53.

The dual meet win marked the first action locally for the Spartans this season. While most area teams had been competing in San Diego County invitationals during the non-league phase of the season, Chula Vista had been active in top-level invitationals in the greater Los Angeles area — with great success.

Villarreal won his senior division at the Woodbridge Invitational while Hernandez captured first place in his junior division at the Dana Hills Invitational. Diaz won his freshman division at the Laguna Hills Invitational.
Chula Vista’s girls team also started its Mesa League season with its best foot forward after defeating Montgomery 20-42. The Spartans placed six of the top seven finishers, including the all six after race-winner Chelsea Nicklen of Montgomery.

Chula Vista’s top five scorers included Angelica Lanos, Virginia Madero, Michelle Calderon, Priscilla Mares and Sonia Larios.

In South Bay League dual meet action at Luckie Waller Park, Castle Park’s boys team topped Hilltop, 16-56, behind medalist Edgar Medina (18:02 for 3.1 miles) while Hilltop, behind race-winner Selina Munoz (14:58 for 2.35 miles), edged Castle Park, 27-32, in the girls half of the matchup.