2005 Metro Conference Report

Barons, Mustags -- state finals bound?

By Phillip Brents

Posted Oct. 13, 2005

The San Diego Section’s cross country coaches appear to have spoken by results of this week’s section rankings. At the midpoint of the 2005 season, it is obviously time for standout teams to be recognized — and the Bonita Vista, Sweetwater and Otay Ranch boys teams have all received it.

Bonita Vista, the defending Mesa League champions, received the fourth ranking among section teams in this week’s Top 10 poll. The Barons are ranked second (to El Camino) among Division I teams. The top three teams in the division qualify for the state championships.

Otay Ranch failed to make the Top 10 cut but is ranked fourth among Division II teams, trailing top-ranked San Pasqual, second-ranked University City and third-ranked Monte Vista. The Mustangs finished just five points behind the defending CIF champion Monarchs in the teams’ only head-to-head meeting this season at the Sept. 9 Mustang Invitational.

Sweetwater is ranked eighth among Division I teams.

The Barons and Red Devils collided Friday (Oct. 7) in dual meet competition at Rohr Park, with Bonita Vista scoring a statement-making 21-35 win. Bonita Vista finished the key matchup with the top two finishers, three of the top five finishers and five of the top seven finishers to place an exclamation mark on the victory.

Defending Metro Conference champion Eric Avila, running in just his second race this season, captured first-place finishing honors with a time of 15:55 on the 3.1-mile course. Fellow junior Austin Jett was second, also putting in a commanding performance with a 16:05 time. Jett finished third at last year’s league finals.

Alan Gudino (16:59) and Azael Gomez (17:02) were third and fourth in the race but the Barons secured the breathtaking win by engineering a 5-6-7 finish among its next three runners, all unheralded to start the season but quickly demanding respect by example.

Mathew Seat was fifth in 17:06, followed by teammates Chris Close (17:12) and Daniel Garcia (17:19).

Seat was fifth overall among all 26 individuals in the race that also included runners from Hilltop and Castle Park. Close and Garcia were seventh and eighth overall in the combined field.

The Barons improved to 2-0 in Mesa League dual competition while Sweetwater fell to 1-1 after a scoring an impressive victory against a much-improved Eastlake squad the preceding week.

Overall, the Red Devils finished with three runners among the top 10 finishers in the combined field as Joe Corona was ninth overall in 17:23. Also scoring in the dual meet against Bonita Vista were Sweetwater’s Martin Macias (17:39) and Juan Nunez (17:46).

Otay Ranch, led by top finisher Matt Danielson, hiked its South Bay League dual meet record to 2-0 with a 17-44 victory against Mar Vista at the Imperial Beach pier. Danielson timed 17:36 on the 3.1-mile course. In three years of varsity competition, the Mustangs have yet to drop a league dual meet, improving to 12-0.

Both the Bonita Vista and Otay Ranch girls teams also remained undefeated in dual competition by scoring wins last week. The Barons topped SuHi by a 21-38 score as Bonita Vista captured the dual’s 2-3-4-5 finishing positions. Brittni King was the Barons’ top three placer in 17:28 for 2.5 miles, finishing fifth in the combined field behind Castle Park’s Julia Hernandez (16:43), Sweetwater’s Karina Rios (17:07) and Hilltop’s Tanya Valenzuela (17:22) and Lisa Lane (17:23).

Otay Ranch ran past Mar Vista 16-47 as Jasmine Leija scored top individual honors in 15:24 for 2.2 miles.

Metro wrap

In other Mesa League dual meets on Oct. 7, Eastlake swept Southwest by identical 15-50 scores in boys and girls varsity competition at Discovery Park while Chula Vista remained undefeated with a sweep of Montgomery at Luckie Waller Park, winning the boys meet 23-32 and capturing the girls meet by a 20-40 score.

For Eastlake, Jeff Welch, Eric Fujikawa and Alex Oleata crossed the finish line together in 18:02 on the 3.1-mile course while the Titans ran six girls across the finish line in one pack: Tania Andrade, Rachel Naranjo, Anette De La Rosa, Maria Lisa Crimi, Heather Voigt and Itzelina Nuno. All navigated the 2.25-mile course in 16:28.

Roberto Hernandez led Chula Vista’s boys team with the top finishing time of 16:54 for 3.1 miles while Montgomery’s Chelsea Nicklen (the reigning Mesa League champion) topped all girls times in the meet at 14:41 for 2.3 miles.

Castle Park and Hilltop split their dual at Rohr Park, with the Trojans winning the boys meet 19-44 and the Lancers winning the girls meet 21-38 to set up respective showdowns against undefeated Otay Ranch in the coming weeks.

Edgar Medina paced Castle Park’s boys team with a 17:10 time (3.1 miles), finishing sixth overall in the combined field that included runners from Bonita Vista and Sweetwater.

Only one Hilltop runner — Mike Magee (17:33) — managed to crack Castle Park’s top five scorers that also included Eli Ledezma (17:38), Samuel Ledezma (18:00), Diego Martinez (18:12) and Enrique Silva (18:26).

The girls race was anticlimactic in the sense that the teams’ top two underclassmen standouts — CP’s Hernandez and Hilltop’s Valenzuela — did not engage in a head-to-head duel on the course. Instead that was left to Hernandez and SuHi’s Rios, with Hernandez breaking free on the first hill after the pair had run neck-to-neck in 6:00 for the first mile.

The Trojans managed to place two runners within Hilltop’s top five runners. Joining Hernandez was Maggy Padilla, who finished sixth in dual scoring in 18:21. Hilltop’s leaders included Valenzuela, Lane, Karla Atencio (17:32), Marga Crain (17:48) and Ashley Ledesma (18:36).

Marian Catholic swept its South Bay League dual against San Ysidro at Luckie Waller Park, winning the boys meet 18-37 while claiming a 28-31 win in the girls meet.

In boys junior varsity competition, Sweetwater edged Bonita Vista 24-32 while Castle Park out-distanced Hilltop 16-42. Sweetwater’s Luis Maela (18:30) was the top individual in the field of 37 runners.