SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Cross Country

Metro Finals could be a guessing game

By Phillip Brents
Posted Nov. 10, 2004

Runners to watch at this year’s Metro Conference cross country championship meet? Take your pick between several high-profile Mesa League athletes.

On the boys side there are Bonita Vista’s Eric Avila, Montgomery’s Christopher Kaeg, Chula Vista’s Ivan Villarreal and Robert Hernandez, Eastlake’s Andy Sist and Eric Fujikawa and Sweetwater’s Azael Gomez. On the girls side there are Montgomery’s Chelsea Nicklen, Sweetwater’s Karina Rios, Eastlake’s Heather Voigt and Tania Andrade Chula Vista’s Elizabeth Arias.

Who will capture Runner of the Year honors? That will be decided Friday, Nov. 12, at Rohr Park.

The boys varsity race (3.04 miles) steps off at 2 p.m., followed by the girls varsity race (2.5 miles) at 2:30 p.m., the boys junior varsity race at 3 p.m. and the girls junior varsity race at 3:30 p.m.

Boys preview
SuHi’s Gomez ran to top finishing honors among conference runners at both the Mustang and South Bay invitationals. He placed second in the large schools division at the Mustang Invitational, finishing 42 and 47 seconds ahead of Bonita Vista’s Abraham Alvarez and Austin Jett, respectively, and 57 seconds ahead of Sist. At the South Bay Invitational two weeks later, Gomez won the boys varsity division with a time of 16:08 for 3.04 miles. Avila finished sixth — 12 seconds behind Gomez while Alvarez and Jett were farther back in the field at 13th and 14th, respectively, and Kaeg was 20th.

Gomez finished ninth at last year’s conference championships, trailing Bonita Vista’s Abraham Alvarez (third), CV’s Villarreal (fourth) and BV’s Michael Valdez (sixth).

Among the nine returning runners from last year’s top 20 Metro Conference boys varsity finishers, eight are in the Mesa League. Bonita Vista’s Michael Morales finished 11th, followed by CV’s Hernandez (13th), Otay Ranch’s Ernesto Valdez (17th), Chula Vista’s Martin Jimenez (18th) and Sweetwater’s Francisco Villasana (19th). Bonita Vista swept the top three junior varsity boys finishers: Austin Jett (first), Bersain Gutierrez (second) and Avila (third).

The order of finish this season has taken on a mind of its own, it seems.

Avila and Jett finished first and fourth in the Division I sophomore boys field at the Mt. Carmel Movin’ Shoes Invitational, timing 16:18.6 and 16:38.7, respectively. Avila has been a consistent front-runner this season. He captured first-place honors in four of the five league dual meets this season (the exception being Sweetwater) and set a course record (16:20, 3.0 miles) at the new Otay Ranch course last month.

Montgomery’s Kaeg has clearly been the most impressive newcomer this season. The Aztec sophomore finished 11 seconds behind Avila at the Mt. Carmel Invitational to take second place in the field (9.7 seconds ahead of Jett).

Kaeg took first-place finishes in dual meets against Chula Vista, Southwest and Eastlake. He scored a four-second victory against Villarreal in the teams’ season-opening dual meet. Hernandez was 16 second back of Kaeg in third place.

The top 10 finishers in both the Mesa League and South Bay League earn all-league honors while the top 15 runners receive medals.

Both Montgomery’s Jonathan Alcala and Sweetwater’s Francisco Villasana ran to top 30 finishes at the South Bay Invitational while Eastlake’s Fujikawa and the Barons’ Valdez both engineered top 40 finishes (out of 105 runners).

Alvarez, Valdez and Morales return as All-Mesa League varsity runners for Bonita Vista, which will be out to secure first place in the league standings with a top team performance at Friday’s conference finals. The Barons concluded the dual meet portion of their schedule with a 5-0 record that included an upstart 23-33 victory against preseason favorite Chula Vista (led by Avila’s first-place finish). Bonita Vista enters the postseason ranked ninth among San Diego Section teams, sixth among Division I schools.

Can the Spartans regroup from a “hot and cold” season to win a co-championship with a top team finish on Friday? Will Sweetwater, Eastlake or Montgomery prove to be the spoiler for someone?

Talent may be everything in some sports but in cross country, it often comes down to whoever is ready to go on race day. In a sport that depends as much on stamina as it does speed, both the physical and mental aspects of competing are equally important.

“If we can have everyone run well on the same day, I could see that happening. But that’s extremely hard to do with such a young team like we have. I would consider it a good feat for us,” said Sweetwater coach Tim Latham, whose team had four of the top seven runners in the dual against Bonita Vista but lost the key 2-3-4 scoring positions in a 26-30 Baron victory.

What may determine whether Bonita Vista owns this year’s league title outright or has to share it may depend on Chula Vista runs “hot” or “cold” on Friday.

Both Hernandez, a junior, and Villarreal, a senior, have won top individual honors in league dual meets this season, with Hernandez topping the field against Sweetwater and Southwest and Villarreal crossing first against Eastlake.

Chula Vista scored an impressive fourth-place team finish (out of 34 teams) at the Kit Carson Invitational Oct. 22 in Escondido. The Spartans finished just two points behind North County power Rancho Bernardo and edged two other traditional North County giants: San Pasqual and Fallbrook.

Sweetwater finished 12th in the field while Montgomery placed 21st, Mar Vista 25th and Southwest 32nd in the team standings.

SuHi’s Gomez led the parade of Metro finishers, finishing with the second best overall time of 16:15 for 3.1 miles among 599 runners. Villarreal was seventh in 16:41, followed by Hernandez (16th, 16:53). The two CV runners posted better times than Montgomery’s Kaeg (27th, 17:00) to avenge the earlier defeat.

The Spartans’ five scorers all finished in the top 63/599 of the field, with juniors Mikkel Conver (49th, 17:31) and Francisco Solano (50th, 17:31) both posting top 50 times.

For Sweetwater, Raul Isais and Villasana were 61st and 72nd, respectively, while Mar Vista’s top two finishers included juniors Levi Blain(76th) and Rene Garcia (86th).

Girls preview
Montgomery’s Nicklen, who finished 18th at last year’s conference finals, has shown that performance was an underachieving one after going undefeated in five league dual meets this season.

At the South Bay Invitational, however, she had a lot of close company with Marian Catholic’s Shanice Howard timing eight seconds ahead of her in 17th place, followed by Castle Park’s Veronica Gonzales (six seconds ahead in 18th place) and SuHi’s Rios (one second ahead in 20th place) and Eastlake’s Tania Andrade right on her heels just four seconds behind.

CV’s Arias and Eastlake’s Voigt, both freshmen, head the list of impact newcomers. Arias topped the field in dual meets against Sweetwater and Southwest while Voigt (an accomplished triathlete as well) took a first-place finish in the Titans’ 25-31 dual meet loss to Chula Vista in a battle of league unbeatens on Oct. 29.

But the climax to the season could produce some surprises. Arias and Spartan teammate Angelica Larios both edged Nicklen at the Kit Carson Invitational. Chula Vista finished 10th as a team, with Virginia Madero, Sonia Larios, Michelle Calderon, Priscilla Mares and Andrea Lopez adding support on the course. Sweetwater — braced by Marina Rios, Stephanie Delgado, Stephanie Mata, Mayra Rosales, Donna Ortiz, Alba Aron and Heather Gonzalez — finished 15th in the field of 31 teams.

Eastlake, paced by Voigt, defeated Sweetwater 18-40 last Friday at Discovery Park to finish its most successful season since moving up to the Mesa League. The Titans take a 4-1 dual meet record into this Friday’s conference finals hoping for an upset. Eastlake could come loaded for bear with Andrade and Voigt joining other high achievers Daphnee Dion and Jennifer Arriola. The Titans also have two top 20 finishers of a year ago in reserve: Sara McKinney (13th) and Melanie Desalvo (17th).

Andrade (ninth) and Voigt (10th) stepped off the season in style with top 10 finishes at the Mustang Invitational and will be looking to end it that way with medals, if not all-league finishes, on Friday. Both led the Eastlake scoring parade in the dual meet against Sweetwater, with Voigt finishing first in 14:30 on the 2.25-mile Discovery Park course, followed by Andrade in 14:48 ahead of SuHi’s Rios (third, 15:02).

South Bay League notepad
•Castle Park’s Edgar Medina placed 35th overall in the combined field of 370 boys varsity runners at this year’s Southern California Invitational Oct. 16 in Oceanside. Teammates Jorge Diaz (54th) and Enrique Silva (97th) both managed top 100 finishes.

•Mar Vista topped Hilltop 23-32 in boys dual meet action last Friday to improve to 3-2 while Castle Park (4-1) kept Otay Ranch (5-0) within striking distance with a 15-50 victory against Marian Catholic.

•Otay Ranch concluded its league dual meet season 5-0 with a sweep against San Ysidro last Friday. Matt Danielson led the Mustangs boys team while Jasmine Leija (all-league in 2003) recorded the top time in the girls race.

•Hilltop has three returning top 20 finishers from last year’s Metro finals: Selena Munoz (fifth), Lisa Lane (16th) and Jameela Alneyadi (20th).

•CP freshman Julia Hernandez could be one to watch in the girls race, at least among South Bay League runners.