The Camino Del Rey Association, which combines the Del Rey and Camino Real leagues, met for their first cluster meet Tuesday at Santa Fe Dam in Irwindale. These two parochial leagues come from all over Southern California, but include five schools from the SGV.
The Camino Real League got things going over the flat three mile course on a hot afternoon with a stirring battle in the boys race between the SGV’s St. Paul and Cantwell, with the Cardinals taking narrow 28-30 edge. The Swordsmen had three in the first five, with senior Kyle Fetter (16:53) and frosh Aleksie Dominguez (16:54) going an untroubled 1-2, but Cantwell responded with a 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 grouping, putting six below St. Paul’s #4 for the win. CSHM was led by seniors Jesse Bonilla (17:07) and Art Hernandez (17:35) with Bobby Gonzalez (18:11) as the critical #5 man.
The girls side was also essentially a race between St. Paul and Cantwell SHM, but this time St. Paul came out on top by a big 23-35 margin, with junior Ariel Melendrez the easy winner at 20:08. CSHM’s Lauren Puebla (Sr, 21:03) and Diana Parra (Jr, 21:09) were the next two across, but then St. Paul went 4, 5, 6, 7 to close things out.
The stronger Del Rey league featured an individual showdown between La Salle junior Daniel De La Torre and Cathedral‘s #1 Adam Avila, fresh from a 14:39 at Woodbridge. But the showdown went immediately off course when Daniel backtracked after missing a turn in the first mile, leaving a gap that Adam maintained the rest of the way for a 14:59 to 15:05 win. The team showdown between CIF Div. IV #1 Don Bosco Tech and Div. III #3 Cathedral didn’t materialize as Bosco either held back their runners or suffered an off day struggled with several injuries and illnesses according to Coach Sal Perez. Cathedral took an easy 23-51 win, with an improving Bishop Amat finishing third. Tech’s best on the day was it’s previous #5, junior Justin Avellan (6th, 16:02), while the Lancers were led by senior Patrick Tarango (7th, 16:05). La Salle was fourth in this five team league.
On the girls side, Bishop Amat’s fast rising frosh Emily Hubert battled St. Joseph’s top two throughout the race. Emily had a five yard lead at the mile, but was 20 yards adrift at 2 miles as the St. Joseph girls pushed forward. In the final mile Hubert fought back, passing Gabi Gonsalez and almost getting to frosh Marissa Pluma, who finished first in 18:46 to Emily’s 18:48. The Lancer’s, helped by junior Elizabeth Navarette’s 10th/20:52 were third in the team battle to St. Joseph’s and Bishop Montgomery. Senior Mariana Henry (11th, 20:58) was best for fourth-place La Salle.
Full Camino Real Results are here, Full Del Rey Results are here at the very nice Camino Del Rey website maintained by Ryan Lim.
Thanks to Bishop Amat coach Dan Lodolo for help with the coverage.
#2 & #3 for Bosco Tech were out due to injury & illness. Otherwise, just a bad day.