Prelims Boys: Glendora Ascendant, South Hills Advances, Velasco and Balderas Move On

Only Glendora was expected to advance among the ESGV boys teams and they did, but a series of great performances will give them company at this coming Saturday’s CIF Finals.

The Tartans did even better than expected, dominating their heat with only 36 points.  Their team time of 78:44 was the best in Div. II by nearly a minute, and they were sixth fastest overall on the day.  Led by Anthony Castro‘s breakthrough 15:17 heat win, Glendora placed four in the top seven of the heat.  If they can continue to perform up to this level, they should find a place on podium at Finals and at the State Meet in Fresno the following week.  Castro’s performance ranked him 12th among all divisions on the day.

They will joined in the next week’s Finals, also at Mt.Sac, by Div. III South Hills.  The Huskies, led by Johnny Flores,  rode a slew of PR’s to the final qualifying spot in their heat.  They’ll have to improve a considerable amount to move on, but just making finals was a great achievement for this rapidly improving team.

Duarte’s (Div. IV) Fabian Velasco and Diamond Ranch’s (Div. III) Paul Balderas both rode big PR’s into the finals, with Velasco likely to earn a spot on the podium on Saturday and a trip to Fresno with a similar performance.

Northview (Div. III) missed a place in the finals by one spot and 62 seconds, while Israel Orosco (Azusa – Div. III) finished 11 places but only 15 seconds away from advancing.  South El Monte (Div. III) was tipped to advance with a good day, but a very rough performances from their top two runners, including previous SGV leader Jayson Perez, left them well short.

Top performers, team rankings, and complete results after the jump.

Top Performers 

1. 15:17   Anthony Castro – Glendora
2. 15:40   Kelly Hernandez – Glendora
3. 15:44   Austin Goodheart – Glendora
4. 15:45   Austin Mendoza – Glendora
5. 15:50   Fabian Velasco – Duarte
6. 16:00   Paul Balderas – Diamond Ranch
7. 16:15   John Garcia – Damien
8. 16:16   Johnny Flores  – South Hills
9. 16:17   Shin Yamamura – Glendora
10. 16:19   Efren Alcala – Arroyo
11. 16:19   Israel Orosco – Azusa

Team Ranking

1. 78:43   Glendora
2. 83:46   South Hills
3. 83:49   Los Altos
4. 84:09   Northview – Alfredo Folgar, 16:23 (top runner)
5. 84:24   Arroyo
6. 85:45   West Covina – Lukas Guardado, 16:50
7. 86:03   South El Monte – Fernando Hernandez, 16:46
8. 87:15    Rosemead – Christopher Le, 17:08
9. 87:23   Diamond Ranch
10. 88:07   Covina – Frankie Gonzalez, 17:10
11. 88:37   Baldwin Park – Anthony Giles, 17:03
12. 88:49   Azusa
13. 89:33   La Puente – Christopher Castillo, 17:08
14. 90:08  Bonita – Eric Espinosa, 16:46
15. 93:22   Bassett – Norris Sabio, 17:38

Individuals:  John Garcia (Damien) 16:15;  Jorge Hernandez (Nogales) 16:54;  Brandon Martinez (El Monte) 16:59;  Avedis Gertmenian (Duarte) 17:09;  Eddie Trujillo (Ganesha) 18:52.

Complete results are here.