The Glendora boys followed up on their Prelims breakthough with a solid performance to win the CIF SS – Division 2 Title for the leading ESGV performance at last Saturdays’ CIF Finals.
Racing one last time over the famously hilly and tough 2.91, the Tartans combined for a 78:38 team time and 96 points to win the title. Led by junior Anthony Castro‘s 15:20 7th place finish and number five man Shin Yamamura‘s break though 15:56 PR, Glendora put five below all but one of the other teams fourth man, and three in the top 21. They move on to Saturday’s California Championships ranked second in Div. II behind only Mountain View of the Central Coast Section.
In the Div III boys race, South Hills ran well behind a PR by senior Johnny Flores (16:12) to finish 16th while Paul Balderas (Sr – Diamond Ranch) was a little off his best, running 16:14 for 54th place. In the Div. IV race, Duarte’s Fabian Velasco turned in his second straight sub 16 performance to finish 8th in 15:53, good enough to earn a spot on the line at the State Meet.
The focus of the ESGV girls was the Division III race, where 2008 State medalists St. Lucy’s and fast rising Bonita where looking for performances that would put them in the top 7 and take them to Fresno. Both teams fell short. Bonita, led again by frosh Marissa Scott (18th – 18:35), were 9th in 1:37:26. St. Lucy’s, except for junior Marissa Horton‘s 18:44 PR, had a rough day, running a combined 1:38:08 for 11th.
Individually, Bonita’s Scott did finish well enough to advance to the State meet, where she’ll be joined by Rosemead’s Brittnie Munoz, who ran a solid 18:24, just off her best, to finish 13th. The other area individual runner, Lauren Justus (Jr – Glendora) started off the day with the area’s top performance of the year, running 18:06 PR to finish 11th in Div. II and advancing to Fresno.
Complete results are here, and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune‘s coverage is here.
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