SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Cross Country

South Bay Invitational

Barons clearing early-season hurdles

Otay Ranch finishes second at Sierra Nevada Invitational

By Phillip Brents

CHULA VISTA, Sept. 24, 2004 -- The Bonita Vista High boys cross country team apparently made a statement at the 31st South Bay Invitational at Rohr Park. It will not be easy to wrestle away the Mesa League championship banner the Barons hold from last season.

Bonita Vista finished second in the team standings, trailing perennial City Conference small schools power St. Augustine by 16 points and placing 16 points ahead of traditional North County power San Pasqual.
The boys and girls varsity fields featured seven of the top-ranked teams in the San Diego Section, thus adding luster to the Barons’ runner-up finish.

Among individuals, sophomore Eric Avila led Bonita Vista’s scorers across the finish line with a sixth-place finish in 16:20 for 3.06 miles. Abraham Alvarez finished as the Barons’ No. 2 man in 13th place in 16:48, immediately followed by sophomore teammate Austin Jett in 14th place in 16:54.

Overall, Bonita Vista placed seven runners under the 18:00 mark — a time that sent ripples of excitement through the Baron coaching staff.

Barons head coach Candice Osuna has been counting the days since the beginning of the season, knowing the potential of the team and balancing it against its slow start.

The highly anticipated dual meet season kicks off Friday, Oct. 1 with Bonita Vista hosting Sweetwater at Discovery Park and preseason favorite Chula Vista tangling with a potentially dangerous Montgomery team at Luckie Waller Park. Both meets step off at 3 p.m.

Front runners
Sweetwater’s Azael Gomez continued to speed past rivals after earning top finishing honors in the boys varsity division with a time of 16:08. Gomez, who placed second at the season-opening Mustang Invitational, also at Rohr Park, placed seven seconds ahead of St. Augustine’s Marco Anzures and eight seconds ahead of Granite Hills’ Josh Sandoval and San Pasqual’s Thomas Whitcomb.

The Metro Conference had three runners finish among the top 10 runners and five runners place among the top 14 finishers. The conference had eight runners finish among the top 25 finishers -- a league-wide reason for excitement.

Shenice Howard of Marian Catholic finished as the Metro’s top varsity girls finisher in 17th place, followed by Castle Park’s Veronica Gonzales (18th), Sweetwater’s Karina Rios (20th) and Montgomery’s Chelsea Nicklen (21st).

JV pride
Otay Ranch’s Jesse Matias and Jessi Tinsley placed second in the boys and girls junior varsity races, respectively. Matias finished the 3.06-mile course in 17:58 while Tinsley completed 2.5 miles in 18:01.
The Mustangs stampeded to the boys JV team title with a 46-point scoring edge over runner-up Bonita Vista. Mike Denman was second for Otay Ranch (fifth overall in 18:28). The Mustangs placed three runners among the top eight finishers.

Terrific Titans, part 2
After the season-opening Mustang Invitational, Eastlake's boys and girls cross country teams looked to be in store for a cross country renaissance this season. Titans coach Joe Stubbs got another barometric reading on his team at the South Bay Invitational.

The Titan boys team finished 11th in a field that included several of the top ranked teams in the San Diego Section. Eastlake trailed eighth-ranked Rancho Buena Vista by 89 points and scored higher than 18 points behind defending South Bay League champion Otay Ranch (ninth place) and 38 points behind longtime Mesa League power Sweetwater (eighth place).

Overall, the meet served host to seven of the top teams in the section, with five teams ranked among the section’s top 13 teams comprising the girls varsity field (Valley Center, El Capitan, San Pasqual, West Hills and Granite Hills) and two top 13-ranked teams (RBV and San Diego) comprising the boys varsity field.

Andy Sist once again led Eastlake’s boys across the finish line with a 34th-place showing in 17:33 for 3.06 miles. Eric Fujikawa finished as the Titans’ second runner, placing 36th in 17:34. Alex Oleata (49th, 17:44) and Mike Clark (55th, 17:53), followed their lead, with Che Nevarez (74th, 18:22) and Anthony Haw (79th, 18:29) finishing among the top 80 runners.

A total of 132 runners finished the race, with the Titans scoring a 49-second spread among their top five scorers. Eastlake’s top four runners were separated by only 20 seconds on the course — a number that had Stubbs smiling after the meet (the Titans top four runners were separated by 37 seconds two weeks earlier at the Mustang Invitational).

“Both Alex Oleata and Michael Clark moved up 30 seconds toward the leaders. We tightened up a lot. We need to keep moving forward. We’re looking forward to the dual meet season,” Stubbs said.

The girls varsity team competed despite missing three of its top four runners — Melanie DeSalvo, Voigt and Dion — due to intercession vacations. “Those three girls are very strong runners. For the girls who did run, they ran a quality race against quality competition,” Stubbs said.

Despite the talent drain, Eastlake finished as the top Metro team in the girls varsity race, placing an impressive ninth in the team standings with 302 points —four points ahead of defending Mesa League champion Bonita Vista (11th, 306 points), 45 points ahead of Sweetwater (12th, 347 points), 81 points ahead of Montgomery (14th, 383 points) and 118 points ahead of Otay Ranch (15th, 420 points).

Andrade completed the 2.5-mile course in 17:03 to trail four conference runners: Marian Catholic’s Shenice Howard (16th, 16:51), Castle Park’s Veronica Gonzales (18th, 16:53), Sweetwater’s Karina Rios (20th, 16:48) and Montgomery’s Chelsea Nicklen (21st, 16:59).