SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Cross Country

Metro Conference Midseason Report

Mustangs racing toward league championships

By Phillip Brents
Posted Oct. 22, 2004

When the Otay Ranch Mustangs line up for the starter’s gun at this year’s Metro Conference championship meet Nov. 12 at Rohr Park, they will be blazing yet new territory for the program — a sweep of both the boys and girls varsity South Bay League titles.

The Mustangs put themselves in position to accomplish this feat — the boys team won last year’s title but the girls team finished second — after defeating Hilltop in a key league matchup Oct. 15 at Rohr Park. The boys team ran past the Lancers 20-43 while the girls squad pulled off a dramatic 28-29 win against the defending league champions.

Otay Ranch improved to 3-0 in league dual meets with the sweep of both varsity races.

With one half of the league championship standings depending on dual meet finish and one half depending on finish at the conference finals, the Mustangs can cement league championships by finishing ahead of the pack at the Nov. 12 finals.

Depending on who is ready to race on race day, the order of finish could become a jumble between Otay Ranch, Hilltop and Castle Park’s girls teams. Otay Ranch and Castle Park are the two favorites for the boys team title.

The Mustangs’ Oct. 15 matchup against the Lancers showed just how close the race for the girls team title is.

“We knew for this meet (against Hilltop) to be really big, we had to win last week (against Castle Park). We knew we had to pack it in. Last week, they went one-two. When the other team does that, it’s tough to win. But we put in three after their first two. Our other pack had three girls,” said Cumming of his team’s 27-32 win against the Trojans.

Essentially the same happed against Hilltop.

The Lancers, who were aiming for another undefeated league dual meet season, placed the top two runners in the 2.5-mile race, with senior Selina Munoz and sophomore Lisa Lane finishing with the identical top time of 17:09. However, Otay Ranch placed six of the next seven runners to cross the finish line, with Jazmin Schoonmaker (third, 17:23) and Estefania Fregoso (fourth, 17:31) finishing ahead of Hilltop’s third runner, Karla Atencio (fifth, 17:33), and a lineup of four Mustangs placing ahead of the Lancers’ fourth finisher, Jasmine Leija (sixth, 17:50), Tina Poole (seventh, 18:47), Ashley Abshier (eighth, 18:50) and Jennifer Amos (ninth, 18:54).

In the scoring battle, the Mustangs placed all five of their scorers (six runners, in total) ahead of Hilltop’s fourth individual.

A key was Fregoso’s third-place finish. She trailed Atencio with 200 yards to go before pulling even and passing the Hilltop runner in the final stretch to finish with a two-second margin.

The Mustangs raced without one of their top runners, Natalie Dygert, to make their victory stand out even more.

“That’s cross country,” Cumming said. “You race with whoever is ready to go.”

Hilltop had entered the dual meet encounter against Otay Ranch with equally high expectations. “The girls were undefeated last year and wanted to go undefeated this year,” Lancer coach Mark Hedderson said.
Hilltop also had the luxury of a stable of runners each capable of rising to the occasion to grab the No. 4 scoring position after the team’s top three runners (Munoz, Lane and Atencio).

“We’ve had a different No. 4 girl each week,” said Hedderson of the group that includes sophomores Rosie Rodriguez and Marga Crane, junior Ameela Alneyadi (slowly working back from an injury) and freshman Ashley Ledesma (daughter of Montgomery coach Ruben Ledesma).

A healthy Alneyadi (an all-league finisher at last year’s finals) could be the key to the order of finish at this year’s conference championship meet.

“We knew they were tough. Their top three had beat out top three in early season times. We knew one of our people had to break up their top three. Both teams raced well. We were fortunate to pull out a victory,” an obviously elated Cumming said. “We definitely had a close matchup. There are some quality teams in our league. Both Hilltop and Castle Park are going to be motivated to finish ahead of us at league finals in order to have a chance to win the league banner. We won the first round. We will be shooting to finish ahead of them at league finals. I was very proud of our girls. They battled with a lot of heart — they ran tough,” Cumming said.

The defending league champion Mustangs boys team, meanwhile, continued to run strong as it makes a bid to qualify for the state championships again while moving up to compete among Division III schools. Otay Ranch placed seven runners between Hilltop’s first and second finisher, taking the second through six scoring positions for the 23-point victory.

The Mustangs also out-pointed Sweetwater 25-32? in unofficial scoring as the two South Bay League teams also ran the same course alongside the Red Devils and Southwest.

Sophomore Johnny Pina continued to stake his claim as Hilltop’s top runner this season by finishing second overall (to Sweetwater’s Azael Gomez, 16:19 for 3.04 miles) in the combined boys race, timing 17:19. Otay Ranch’s Matt Danielson (17:20) was third overall, with SuHi’s Roberto Isais (17:23) placing fourth. The Mustangs placed the next three runners — Ernesto Valdez (fifth, 17:25), Ricky Pimentel (sixth,17:45) and Ryan Matias (seventh,17:45) — ahead of the Devils’ third runner, Martin Macias (eighth, 17:55). Otay Ranch had seven runners place among the top 12 finishers, including five among the top 10 between the four schools.

In team scoring against Hilltop, the Mustangs went 2-3-4-5-6 to the Lancers’ 1-9-10-11-12.

Otay Ranch defeated Castle Park the previous week by a 22-26 score despite also not finishing with the top scorer in the race. The Mustangs opened the dual meet season with a 16-47 victory against Mar Vista. Valdez and Danielson both timed 17:54.1 to inaugurate Otay Ranch’s new course on campus while Ricky Pimentel and Ryan Matias both finished in 17:56.1. Amit Patel and Jesse Matias both clocked in at 19:01. The Mustangs’ scoring order went 1-2-3-4-6.