Mt.SAC Boys Saturday: Arcadia Finally Falls, El Rancho Steps Up, Glendora Slips Up

Arcadia had not lost a meet since 2009.  Despite key losses from their National Championship team, the Apaches kept winning, even when not favored, opening with a course record win at Woodbridge and a clutch performance at the national Bob Firmin Invite in Idaho.  In Saturday’s Team Sweepstakes race, they ran very well again, but fell to an inspired performance from Rancho Cucamonga.  Senior Sergio Gonzalez was 2nd at 14:49, just a few ticks off his best in the perfect conditions of last year’s race.  He was joined up front by junior Mitchell Pratt who was 14th/15:19 and second best among the SGV.

The Apaches were the only Div. I or II SGV team in a sweeps race, so the rest of the local action was in the heats.  The best performance came from El Rancho, winners of the top Div. I heat in 80:19, led by 8th/15:44 by senior Henry Rodriguez and a 10th/15:15 by junior Zach Mejia.  Running alone in the same race, Del Rio rival Aaron Mora (Sr, Whittier) was 2nd/15:20.  SGV #3 California was 6th in the same race at 81:22, but with 1-5 gap of only 15 seconds apparently focused on pack running rather than racing.  In the third heat, SGV #8 Santa Fe were strong up front, with junior Kevin Ramirez at 15:29 and senior Christian Garcia 15:57, but a 2:05 gap hurt their team chances.

The Division II schools ran in the mid-afternoon in 80+ degree weather,  Claremont (SGV #10) responded well to the challenge with a 83:15 team result in the 2nd heat.  Junior Jimmy Baeskins ran 16:00, tenth best SGV on the day, and a Mt.SAC PR despite the warm weather.  SGV #2 Glendora ran poorly, with none of their first five performing to expectations, and totaled only 83:39.  Rowland senior Nick Rivera led the sixth heat the whole way to win in 16:06 and the Raider combined for the race win in 85:33,

Full Results for the 2011 Mt.SAC Cross Country Invitational are here

SGV Top 14 Performers and Team Rankings after the jump

SGV Boys Top 14 Performers 2011

1. 14:49  Sergio Gonzalez – Sr, Arcadia
2. 15:19  Mitchell Pratt – Jr, Arcadia
3. 15:20  Aaron Mora – Sr, Whittier
4. 15:27  Ryan Vargas – Sr, Arcadia
5. 15:29  Kevin Ramirez – Jr, Santa Fe
6. 15:44  Henry Rodriguez – Sr, El Rancho
7. 15:45  Zach Mejia – Jr, El Rancho
8. 15:54  Anu Shah – Sr, Arcadia
9. 15:57  Christian Garcia – Sr, Santa Fe
10. 16:00  Jimmy Baeskens – Jr, Claremont
11. 16:01  James McCreary – Sr, Diamond Bar
12. 16:04  Michael Munoz – Sr, La Serna
13. 16:06  Nick Rivera – Sr, Rowland
14. 16:06  Aric Crowell – Jr, Claremont
15. 16:06  Justin Raya – Sr, Montebello

SGV Teams & Top Performers

1. 77:36  Arcadia (Div. I) – Gonzalez
2. 80:19  El Rancho (Div. I) – Rodriguez
3. 81:22  California (Div. I) – Josh Roldan 16:08
4. 82:30  Santa Fe (Div. I) – Ramirez
5. 83:15  Claremont (Div. II) – Baeskens
6. 83:39  Glendora (Div. II) – Aaron Forburger 16:24
7. 85:25  La Serna (Div. II) – Munoz
8. 85:33  Rowland (Div. II) – Rivera
9. 85:58  Walnut (Div. I) – Micah Van Setten 16:25
10. 87:14  Arroyo (Div. II) – Andres Aparicio 16:32
11. 87:25  West Covina (Div. I) – Tyler Potts 16:35
12. 88:09  Montebello (Div. I) – Raya
13. 88:55  Baldwin Park (Div. II) – Isaac Morales 17:18
14. 89:20  Diamond Bar (Div. I) – McCreary
15. 91:24  La Mirada (Div. II) – Tim Guzman 16:48
16. 93:25  Alhambra (Div. I) – Joshua Lopez 17:41
17. 101:37  Mark Keppel (Div. II) – Michael Wu 18:41
18. 102:35  San Gabriel (Div. II) – A. Tanwongprasert 17:38
19. -NT-  Whittier – Mora