L-R: Maldonado, Mejia & Gonzalez
The first Valle Vista meet of 2011 is in the books, and change is in the making. Covina is defending two-time boys and three-time girls defending champs, but the girls will have an uphill battle. Northview broke through to win today on the three mile Lake Course at Bonelli Park in San Dimas, with San Dimas taking the important third spot. On the boys side, the Colts held the first spot by a good margin, but will be pressured by young and rapidly improving Baldwin Park.
Here’s a quick meet recap from Covina Coach Erik Starkey:
On the girls, Northview won it on the strength of a very good looking pack. They took 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11. Elizabeth Esparza was their top runner followed by Devenie Elizando and Johnnie Zambrano, all of whom were trying to shake off colds. Covina had 3 in the top 7, but did not have nearly enough after that.  Their #1 was Ashli Baddorf (19:21) who was 2nd overall. Anna Barcelo of Nogales led the whole way for an easy win. San Dimas ran very well and placed a very close third behind Covina. The Saints’ Emily Smith and Alyssa Martinez were 3rd and 4th overall, while fourth placed Baldwin Park was missing three of their usual varsity runners. The score was NV 44 Covina 56 San Dimas 59.
The Covina boys were 1-2-3 with Kevin Mejia first overall (16:02) then Chris Maldonado (16:04) and Paul Gonzalez (16:12). The Colts next two were 5th and 11th to score 22 points. Fourth was Jorge Hernandez of Nogales, and then a pack of four Baldwin Park guys, all sophomores. But their 5th guy was 16th, making the score Covina 22, BP 47, and Nogales 87 (Revised 9/30)
Since this came from the Covina coach, he only had times for his athletes. Complete results and times will follow
Congrats to all the runners in the league… especially to the BP guys who are young, but are getting close to victory! You guys have this… if not this year, the next.. Just work hard and the league title will be yours. Don’t think it will be easy this year (or in fact any of the years) because I won’t let up! My team also used to be young (not as talented however) and a couple years ago it was 1 frosh, 3 soph, and 1 senior on the varsity team… and so we got to mature together in running and in life… This is great guys and you’ve worked hard so far, so keep it up and before long you will be champs!!!
Ohhh! and I forgot to mention that BP’s numbers don’t add up… If they followed directly behind me, which they did, then their team score would be 5, 6, 7, 8, 16… but that add up to 42? So I am guessing then that their 4th guy was actually in 12th since I do remember at least three BP guys behind me.
Hey Jorge,
thanks for the support man we appreciate it and appreciate the classy and respectful competition. We are getting closer and with time and patience we will get to where we want to be. We have to take these losses in stride and learn from them because just as the team is young so are we, the coaches. We look forward to competing with you again man hopefully your two other strong boys can get up there with you and get you ugys into CIF. Best of luck.