SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Cross Country

2004 Metro Conference Finals

'Awesome' Barons set pace at league finals

Castle Park provides upset factor in South Bay League

By Phillip Brents

Posted Nov. 16, 2004

Bonita Vista High cross country coach Candice Osuna did not find it difficult to think of a number of superlatives to describe the Barons’ blockbuster performance in winning the Mesa League boys team championship at last Friday’s Metro Conference finals at Rohr Park.

"Awesome, just awesome," she said in the wake of Bonita Vista’s dominating 25-point win. "They ran just awesome today. I’m so proud of them. They ran with confidence. That’s the thing to do. We definitely have high expectations for big meets. We’re excited. We kind of like that. We come out on the radar screen from nowhere. People ask where have you been? But we’ve been here all along."

Listening to Osuna, one could almost not blame her for breaking out in tears of joy, so impressive was the Barons’ championship push.

Bonita Vista finished with three of the top four individuals in the combined conference race (Mesa and South Bay League runners together), and four of the top 10. Sophomore Eric Avila used a strong finishing kick to out-duel Sweetwater’s Azael Gomez for the individual championship while Baron sophomore Austin Jett and BV senior Abraham Alvarez filled in the space immediately behind the Red Devil runner.

As a team, the Barons finished with 32 points to Sweetwater’s 57 points and Chula Vista’s 68 points. Combined with a perfect 5-0 dual meet record, Bonita Vista finished the season with 12 standings points — alone in first place ahead of both Sweetwater and Chula Vista, which shared second place with nine standings points. Chula Vista had out-pointed Sweetwater 23-35 earlier in dual meet competition to finish with a 4-1 dual record.

Overall, Bonita Vista finished the meet with four medalists (top 15 league placers) as senior Bersain Gutierrez logged a 22nd conference place-finish (15th among Mesa League runners) in 17:34 (for 3.04 miles).

Avila and Gomez entered the final 200 yards shoulder to shoulder as they glided down hill toward the finish line. The young Baron standout pushed ahead with about half that distance remaining and held onto the lead to best Gomez, who had gone undefeated in league dual meets, by a stride at the finish line.

Avila crossed in 15:50 ahead of Gomez (15:51). Jett finished third in 16:18, followed by Alvarez (16:22).

"I was leading the whole time but he was pushing me. The final 100 I pulled out," said Avila, who finished third at last year’s junior varsity championships. "My strategy was to kick and out-kick him. But he starting throwing arms. I was afraid I’d go into a tree. Actually, I did once. My arm brushed against a tree. He’s an aggressive runner. I rely a lot on my kick. I knew if he tried to pass me that I could out-kick him. I knew I had to use my kick on the down hill."

Jett, meanwhile, was the surprise in the field, maintaining his front pack position throughout the race. He won last year’s JV conference championship in 17:37 — improving by 1:19 in a year’s time.

Avila ran 18:18 at last year’s JV finals — an improvement of 2:28.

An echo of Osuna’s "awesome" might be appropriate at this junction.

Rounding out the 10 individuals in the boys race were Chula Vista’s Ivan Villarreal (fifth, 16:34), Castle Park’s Edgar Medina (sixth, 16:42), Chula Vista’s Roberto Hernandez (seventh, 16:43), Montgomery’s Christopher Kaeg (eighth, 16:54) and Eastlake’s Eric Fujikawa (ninth, 17:03).

Medina finished as this year’s South Bay League champion while Avila earned honors as the Mesa League champion.

Chula Vista’s girls team duplicated its first-place dual meet finish with a first-place finish at league finals to win the Mesa League championship. The Spartans finished the season with 12 standings points. Eastlake, which finished 4-1 in dual meets, placed second with 10 standings points after trailing Chula Vista 34-49 on last Friday’s scoreboard.

Otay Ranch’s boys and girls teams entered the conference finals in the drivers seat with 5-0 dual meet records but stumbled on the course. Castle Park out-pointed the Mustang boys team 30-36 to finish as co-champions while Otay Ranch placed third behind Hilltop (first) and Castle Park (second) to give sole rights to the girls team championship to Hilltop.

Chula Vista’s five scorers all earned All-Mesa League honors by engineering top 10 finishes within their league. Angelica Larios (16:25) finished third behind Mesa League champion Chelsea Nicklen (16:06) of Montgomery and runner-up Karina Rios (16:24) of Sweetwater. Freshman sensation Elizabeth Arias (16:42) placed sixth, followed by teammates Michelle Calderon (seventh, 17:08), Virginia Madero (eighth, 17:10) and Sonia Larios (10th, 17:18).

Second-place Eastlake had three all-league runners and four medalists. Tania Andrade (16:26) placed fourth among Mesa League runners while freshman Heather Voigt (16:42) was fifth and Daphnee Dion (17:17) was ninth. Sara McKinney earned a medal with her 14th place finish in 18:07.

“We lost a couple girls. If they had a chance to be here, it might have been closer or even a different outcome. But to come in second after finishing dead last year at CIF, is a good start. Since every one of our top six girls is coming back next year, it bodes well for the future,” Eastlake coach Joe Stubbs said.

Third-place Bonita Vista had three runners earn medals: Brittni King (11th, 17:38), Rachel Butler (13th, 17:58) and Katie Leahy (15th, 18:12).

Hilltop dropped a one-point decision to second-year Otay Ranch in the teams’ Oct. 15 dual meet. According to Lancer coach Mark Hedderson, that narrow loss proved to be the team’s prime motivation for revenge at league finals.

“The girls were very motivated. Losing a close score in the dual meet was a great motivator. Our four and five runners, Rosie Rodriguez and Marga Crain, both stepped it up and ran what they were capable of running. I knew that dual race was going to be close. It was a great race. Our top three runners were great against Otay but they were ran better today. They were really motivated. They took that loss hard.”

Senior Selena Munoz, who ran to her third individual South Bay League championship with a top conference time of 16:02 for 2.5 miles, led Hilltop’s league finals charge. The Lancers totaled three All-South Bay League runners and five medalists. Joining Munoz as all-league were Lisa Lane (third, 16:54) and Karla Atencio (sixth, 17:19). Rodriguez (11th, 18:15) and Crain (13th, 18:27) both earned medals.

The Lancers clinched the team title when Castle Park, the third-place finisher during the dual meet season with losses to both Hilltop and Otay Ranch, edged the Mustangs for second place at league finals. The Trojans, with 54 points, finished 20 points behind the Lancers (34) but eight points ahead of Otay Ranch (62). In the final standings, Hilltop won the title with 11 standings points, followed by the Mustangs in second place with 10 standings points and Castle Park in third place with nine standings points.

Castle Park worked the upset with three all-league runners and four medalists. The Mustangs had two all-league runners and three medalists.

Freshman sensation Julia Hernandez went out early with nothing to lose and finished second among league runners behind Munoz in 16:24 (third overall in the conference behind Munoz and Nicklen). Veronica Gonzales, an all-league finisher last year, took fourth behind Hilltop’s Lane with a time of 16:57 while Maxine Cepeda (18:02) bested Hilltop’s Rodriguez for the last all-league berth in 10th place. Maggie Padilla (15th, 18:50) edged out the final medalist spot.

Otay Ranch’s all-league finishers included Jazmin Schoonmaker (seventh, 17:46) and Jasmine Leija (ninth, 17:52). Ashley Abshier (12th, 18:25) also earned a medal for the Mustangs, whose roster featured some late season depletions due to injury.

Hilltop, Castle Park and Otay Ranch combined for seven of the 10 all-league finishers and 11 of the 15 medalists. Marian Catholic’s Shanice Howard (fifth, 17:17) and Miriam Cota (eighth, 17:48) rounded out the 2004 all-league finishers while Mar Vista’s Ashley Ortega (14th, 18:41) brought the representation of schools with medalists to five.

Otay Ranch had to settle for a co-championship with Castle Park in the boys standings after the Trojans scored three of the top four finishers at league finals. Edgar Medina took the top individual finish in 16:42, followed Otay Ranch’s Ernesto Valdez in 17:19. However, the next two runners in team scoring both belonged to Castle Park: Jorge Diaz (third, 17:21) and Diego Martinez (fourth, 17:25). Eli Ledesma was the fourth Trojan to run to all-league honors with his ninth-place finish in 17:39 while Enrique Silva (13th, 17:46) and Paige Espinoza (15th, 18:20) brought the Castle Park medalist count to six runners.

A key to the upset was Castle Park placing its top four runners in front of the Mustangs’ four all-league runners. “I knew Edgar would be up there but Eli and Jorge were our big question marks. Eli was injured. he had only two weeks of training. Jorge had been our third runner all year in competition but had been our second runner in practices. He just needed a good race and came through,” said Hector Hernandez, who shares coaching duties with the Trojans (along with Claudia Hernandez and B.R. Kellish). “Our peaking process was the key. They peaked right on time. We’re going to take that on to CIF.”

Otay Ranch’s all-league runners, besides Valdez, included Matt Danielson (sixth, 17:30), Ryan Matias (seventh, 17:31) and Ricky Pimentel (10th, 17:41). Two more Mustangs earned medals: Ivan Dallet (11th, 17:42) and Amit Patel (12th, 17:45).

“Castle Park ran very well. It wasn’t our best day but Castle Park ran their best race all season. They deserved to win,” Mustang coach Ian Cumming said. “I didn’t do a good job preparing our guys mentally. I’m proud of what we accomplished, though. We didn’t have one of our best days but you’re going to have that over the course of a season. Castle Park did — both their guys and girls. I’m equally proud of our girls because we were missing a lot of girls. I was hoping we could do our best but both Hilltop and Castle Park did their best job. I’m proud of our season overall because we battled through a lot of injuries and finished undefeated in dual meets at 5-0.”

“We did what we had to do. We would like to have run better but you can only hope for the best. We did the best we could with the circumstances that had been hitting us hard the last couple weeks. Five of our top eight have all been sick within the past three weeks,” Valdez said. “We wanted to prove that we were still the best team out there. Castle Park is a good team. Kudos to them. But if we had a second chance to do it, we’d pour our team out there. We’re fine though with how the season ended. We’re still champions.”

Said Danielson: “We put our heart and soul into the season. We knew Castle Park would come back strong. We knew we had to have a strong finish. We were after it. We had to prove we were still at the top,” Danielson said.

The Mustangs will get that “second chance” at this weekend's San Diego Section Division III championships at Balboa Park’s Morley Field. The top three teams qualify for the state championship meet Nov. 27 in Fresno. Otay Ranch will attempt a return trip to Fresno but in Division III this season after moving up an enrollment division from Division IV when the Mustangs placed runner-up to La Jolla Country last year.

Otay Ranch may face a few more hurdles to bound this year in the deeper Division III field. Perennial power St. Augustine finished ranked sixth overall among section teams and first among Division III schools, followed by Valley Center in a tie for 10th place overall in the section and second in Division III. Other teams the Mustangs will have to out-run include La Jolla, USDHS, San Dieguito Academy and Valhalla.

Otay Ranch’s runners believe they can sneak into that third spot if they perform to their potential. The season, they said, is not over yet.

“We’re looking at La Jolla and St. Augustine, University, Valley Center and San Dieguito as the teams we need to beat,” Valdez said. “St. Augustine and La Jolla have been really good for a long time and have deep programs. They're pretty much at the top. We realize that. But we feel we have a shot at being the No. 3 team.”

Mar Vista, which placed third in the final season boys standings behind co-champions Castle Park and Otay Ranch, placed two runners among the top 10 finishers: Rene Garcia (fifth, 17:29) and Levi Blain (eighth,17:34).