BTC Summer Series 5k - Results for Race #2

The second race was the largest one I have every seen. There were 169 athletes doing their second race of the series and at least as many first time runners. There must have been a lot of sandbagging in the first one because 128 runners ran faster in the second race of the series.

Belinda Shull (47:07) lead wire to wire with a consistent walking pace and beat the field by almost a minute. My partner in crime, Robert Scales and I tried to place high and not burn our handicap but we failed in the later. I got 5th/41:44 and he got 6th/41:32 but we killed our handicaps in the process.

Scott Van Matre (future Driller) placed 9th/27:10 and could be one to look out for to take the overall title perhaps. Two wily veterans, Cregg Weinmann (the shoe guy) and Adam Setzer (Ridgeview coach) came in 44th/22:51 and 45th/22:54 and could be in the running for the title too.

Former Drillers, Andrew Edquist (65th/18:30) and Christopher Anderson (83rd/21:33) improved by a minute or so. Christopher (my son) won the series in 2006 and could do it again this year. In 2006, he had never run in his life and just improved throughout the summer. This year, after running a 3:16 marathon earlier in the year, he took the past two months off to focus on graduating early from high school. So the first race of the series was his first run in 2 months. So look out for him.

With so many running, I can not list everyone so I will mainly focus on our local high school and college runners:

• In 91st was David Bacus (17:50) who is often seen leading many of our local races. It appears that the handicap system works because a relative of his came in 90th and beat him by 0.3 seconds. Way to go Cassandra!
• In 94th place was Barry Jameson (26:30) who brought a whole bunch of his Taft cross country athletes to the event. Two places behind him was another coach. Former Roadrunner athlete (Kate Patrick) and now assistant cross country coach at CSUB, ran a fairly quick 21:03.
• As usual Sarah Baker (24:36) gets them at the tape. Sarah and her Driller teammate Gabby Lerma (24:38) barely beat the fastest runner of the day. Only a second seperated the three at the line. Robby Baker (Ridgeview Sr) got 106th behind Sarah and Gabby. His 16:37 was the fastest time of the day.

Besides all the young runners in the series, another reason I like the series is that it is a family affair. Sarah's sister Maggie ran 26:35 and their mom (Sally Baker) ran 26:36. Interestingly Maggie and mom didn't run against each other because Maggie (11) had to start with the new runners at 7:15. Gabby's sister Auggie (10) ran 26:39 too. So at the next race, they will all start very close together. My money is on Maggie.

Following the family theme Robby caught and beat his mom (Danette 34:18) and the Wykoff clan was MIA (cross country vacation I hear).

With the clock getting closer to thirty minutes, the field started to thin. In theory, everyone should finish when the clock strikes 30 minutes but tonight many ran faster then they had at the first one.

Clocking in under thirty were:

Bruce Deeter (115th/20:48), Cesar Mireles (122nd/16:45) who ran for Golden Valley and BC, and Brant Jones (126th/18:54) who was a valley individual and team champ for Centennial in cross country in 2007 and runs for Point Loma now.

Clocking in over thirty minutes:

Alex Garcia (136th/17:29) who runs for Ridgeview and Erica Silva (143rd/23:07) who use to run for CSUB and Highland and can now be found at the new CSUB futness center, behind her were several CSUBers. Ryan Lucker (151st/17:41), Cecilia Lopez (156th/22:23) who just graduated from North High and will be running for CSUB this fall and Connie King (167th/32:31) All of them went to the Tahoe relay the weekend before and may have been feeling the effects of that trip.

Two standout sisters from East High ran 25:15 (Sophia Garcia) and Lucia (25:23). They both were in front of the best freshman distance runner in Bakersfield this past season. Curtis Kelly (160th/19:13) of Stockdale had the second best freshman time at the valley cross country meet in 2008 and broke ten minutes in the 3200 several times in track. Lastly, the fastest woman in the first race of the series, Brooklan Rosales ran 22:18 for 158th place.

NEW RUNNERS ESTABLISHING HANDICAP:

This group was huge and as I was finishing the last half mile, they came roaring by. It was almost a stampede. In the end, CSUBer Eddy Lee was the fastest with a clocking of 17:16 and was followed by former Golden Valley and current BC runner Robert Quintero in 17:38. In fifth was Brian Solis (Ridgeview Sr) in 18:04.

East High had quite a few in the race including former Blade, Oscar Fuentes (20:23) and current Blades Camilo Mosqueda (19:26), Jose Ramirez (19:11), and Santiago Lazarit (18:38).

A couple former Drillers also ran. David Van Matre who attends Cal Poly SLO (08) ran 19:53 and Michael McCarthy (08) who attends San Jose State ran 21:15. A new Driller, Kevin Scivano ran 21:29.

Valley qualifier in the 300 hurdles and former Scotsman Ariel Hurtado ran 21:44. Former North High standout Cody Gragg (08) ran 18:55 and was barely beat by Arvin's cross country coach Brian Nelson (18:54). Cody now attends Fresno State btw.

The fastest new girl was Liberty junior Ashley Barton in a time of 22:29 and she was followed by Taft's Megan Thompson (23:12) who ran the 800 at valley this year. Ashley beat her dad Bob (29:02) by over six minutes.

Besides Sarah Baker and Gabby Lerma, the Lady Drillers had Emily Shuford run 25:45, Alejandra Ponce (26:42), Sarah Scrivano (Kevin's sister) in 29:12 and Madi Dela Huerte in 29:42.

Complete Results HERE.

Race Two Photos HERE.