Like the Boys, the Ridgeview Girls are Top Ranked

Three weeks into the season and the Ridgeview girls are the top ranked Kern County team according to Larry Lung (Central California Cross Country Chair). The Wolf Pack has been racking up wins all season and he has them 5th in the valley followed by Stockdale in 7th.

Stockdale won the EB Invite and ran some fast times at Woodbridge last weekend.

Rounding out his top 20 overall are:

• Foothill (15) - Recently won the Independence Invite
• Garces (17) - They just beat Foothill in a duel meet
• Centennial (19) - Getting better every week
• Shafter (20) - Tied Ridgeview at the McLane Invite (won the 6th runner tie breaker). This weekend at the Wolf Pack is their first big meet of the year and I expect them to move up the rankings soon.

Overall rankings are great but in cross country valley and state are run in divisions and below is how Mr. Lung has our local schools ranked.

Division I

1. Buchanan 31 1
2. Clovis 50 2
3. Clovis East 83 3
4. Bullard 102 4
5. Stockdale 120 6 - Their top five are within a minute of each other.
6. Clovis West 129 5
7. Golden West 199 8
8. Centennial 207 9
9. Madera 232 7
10. Bakersfield 330 10 - The Drillers came in second behind Stockdale at the EB Invite and should be ranked higher despite the lack of a 5th runner (their top four is that good).

Division II

1. Mt. Whitney 101 1
2. Tulare 102 2
3. El Diamante 149 4
4. Foothill 150 5 - Are 2 and 1 in duel meets with a large team to draw from
5. Sunnyside 157 3
6. Garces 158 6 - Also 2 and 1 in duels meets. For several seasons Guzman was alone but now a team has been built around her.
7. Liberty (Bakersfield) 204 7 - Lead by standout Ashley Barton, I have heard that her team mates are getting better.
8. North (Bakersfield) 209 10 - The Stars are a young team that maybe surprise many like their leader Moyer did her freshman year.
9. Sanger 224 8
10.Monache 230 9

Division III

1. Madera South 105 1
2. Ridgeview 107 2 - Defending valley champs, enough said.
3. Clovis North 146 3
4. Shafter 240 4 - A young squad who can keep up with the Wolf Pack.
5. Highland 248 6 - Coach Mayberry's teams are always in the hunt for state berth come November
6. Redwood 288 5
7. Exeter 290 7
8. Independence 324 - Have a returning state qualifier and seniors this year.
9. Delano 360 8
10. Hoover 363 10


Division IV

1. Firebaugh 102 1
2. Taft 183 2 - Lead by Megan Thompson, she hopes to lead her team to a state berth.
3. McFarland 195 4 - Hopes to replicate their boys success but I hear key runners are not competing this year for them.
4. Sierra 251 6
5. Orange Cove 274 7
6. Fowler 283 8
7. Corcoran 295 10
8. Woodlake 314 NR
9. Liberty (Madera) 330 NR
10. Farmersville 343 9

Week #3 (September 21)
Varsity Girls

Overall score last week

1. Buchanan 69 1

2. Clovis 138 2

3. Clovis East 250 3

4. Madera South 283 4

5. Ridgeview 290 6

6. Bullard 317 8

7. Stockdale 380 11
   

8. Mt. Whitney 391 5

9. Tulare 395 10

10. Clovis North 406 9

11. Clovis West 409 9

12. Firebaugh 466 12

13. CVC 549 13

14. El Diamante 605 15

15. Foothill 609 16

16. Sunnyside 637 14

17. Garces 642 19

18. Golden West 652 NR

19. Centennial 680 NR
    

20. Shafter 688 17

Garces Girls & East Boys Win Big

On a day where mere mortals dare not tread, the Garces girls and East High boys pulled off impressive wins. Throughout the day, I was receiving texts that this meet and that meet was postponed for a later date due to the heat.

(Please click on photo to go to uploading meet photos)

But the meet I had long ago picked to cover went on as planned . It started a hour later and it was not that bad at Heritage Park. Sure it was hot (near 100) but there was a breeze and plenty of shade.

This park is one of my favorites for racing because it all on grass and there hills all over the place. The course is roughly the same as when I ran it in the 80s for Highland (I won the only time I ran on it btw). You run across the only flat part of the course, then turn right and go uphill to Bernard street. Then more uphill till you get to Mt. Vernon when you head downhill to the cul-de -sac part. Then downhill again along Mt Vernon.

Then you basically do a small inner loop with up and down a hill part and then do the course in reverse for two laps. So I bet you are confused and so were many of the athletes. The course makes sense to me but I have always had a really good almost Spiderman-like superpower sense of direction.

To add to the confusion was the long pre-race description of the course. Most had run a loop with their team already and knew where to go. But when you are nervous at the start line and several well meaning adults are trying to tell you were to go, you get confused super fast. In the earlier races, kids were going everywhere and it was confusing.

But by the time the varsity races started, most should have known where to go if they had watched the earlier races. When the varsity races began near 6pm, it was very shady on the course and there was quite an evening crowd milling around the park.

At the whistle, Monica Guzman took her usual lead and kept it to the end. The interesting part of the race was behind her, where two packs of runners where running for the team title. For half the race, things looked close between Garces and Foothill.

It looked like it might go the Trojans way but then on the second trip through the cul-de-sac, Veloz (FHS) just stopped in her tracks while running in the chase pack behind Guzman. She got sick, recovered and went on to run a gutsy race. In fact, she caught her team mate Fernandez who was having severe back pain but did not leave her because she was unfamiliar with the course.

In the end, Guzman was followed by a couple of her team mates, and they took the wins over Foothill and East. Garces is 2-1, Foothill is 2-1 and East is 1-3.

Girls

Garces 23, Foothill 32
Foothill 22, East 36
Garces 21, East 36

1. Guzman, G, 22:37; 2. Garcia, E, 22:50; 3. Brown, G, 23:21; 4. Vu, F, 23:41; 5. Fernandez, F, 23:54; 6. Veloz, F, 23:57; 7. Marasak, F, 23:57; 8. Cruz, G, 24:23; 9. Montoya, F, 24:29; 10. Garcia, E, 25:04.

JV Foothill 26, East 31

The boys race was not as dramatic as the girls race. The East boys took over the lead with a couple Foothill runners and O'Malley (Garces) in tow. As the race progressed up and down the hills, the pack became the East pack and Lopez from Foothill.

In the end, Lopez was able to take the win but with East coming in 2,3,4 and five in beforebefore Foothill had three in, their team victory was assured. So now both squads have 2-1 records. Garces record drops to 1-2.

Boys

Foothill 21, Garces 34
East 22, Foothill 37
East 17, Garces 48

1. Lopez, F, 17:51; 2. Ramirez, E, 17:54; 3. Lazarit, E, 18:02; 4. Mosqueda, E, 18:04; 5. Bautista, F, 18:25; 6. O'Malley, G, 18:28; 7. Moss, E, 18:45; 8. Sotello, E, 19:06; 9. Fuentes, E, 19:17, 10. Freed, G, 19:36.

The Alpha Males are the Wolf Pack

So far this season, the Ridgeview boys have won every meet they have entered but their latest victory was very special. They went to nine time state champ Mcfarland's Invite and won convincingly. No Kern team has beat Mcfarland at any meet in recent memory and this maybe why they are ranked number two (complete overall rankings at bottom of page) in the valley.

With this lost, Mcfarland dropped to number five. Highland (9) and Stockdale make it four teams in the top ten overall. Of course, in cross country valley and state are competed in division actio and below are the rankings:

Division I - Top three go to state and Stockdale's young talented squad might just make it in November.

1. Buchanan 25 1
2. Clovis West 51 2
3. Clovis 56 3
4. Stockdale 82 4 - Had a real good showing at Woodbridge this past weekend (16:15 avg)
5. Clovis East 114 5
6. Madera 124 6
7. Bullard 170 7
8. Mt. Whitney 187 8
9. Centennial 203 9 - New coach and new direction brings better results. Now if they were in the SEYL instead of the SWYL ...
10. Central 342 10

Division II - The Scotsmen have been bridesmaids two years running at valley.

1. Highland 65 1 - Their top 5 runners beat East's first runner at their duel.
2.Golden West 107 4
3. Redwood 115 2
4. Tulare 126 5
5. East Bakersfield 136 3 - So far this year they have been M.I.A. Only lost one from last year but so far no results this year.
6. Sunnyside 160 6
7. Tulare Western 195 9
8. North (Bakersfield) 196 10 - Won the Independence Invite
9. Hoover 196 8
10.Liberty (Bakersfield) 198 7 - Lost to Foothill but team is improving each week.

Division III - This a stacked division!

1. Ridgeview 71 2 - Undefeated & Ranked #2 in the valley plus their 1 through 5 gap is getting tighter.
2. Madera South 91 2
3. Roosevelt 113 3
4. Clovis North 174 5
5. Shafter 205 4 - They have been laying low so far but loaded with sub five minute milers.
6. Wasco 224 6 - Another good Kern squad.
7. El Diamante 313 8
8. Foothill 337 NR - New head coach and won their first dual of the year.
9. Frontier 389 10
10. Yosemite 408 NR

Division IV*

1. McFarland 59 1 - Despite their first local lost in recent memory, the Cougars are still number one
2. Avenal 67 2
3. Parlier 167 4
4. Exeter 191 3
5. Firebaugh 241 9
6. Kerman 258 8
7. Taft 288 10
8. Mendota 291 NR
9. Farmersville 293 6
10. Caruthers 333 NR

This week, the Wolf Pack hosts their own meet at River Walk and most of the top teams including McFarland are expected to compete. Besides ranking on Lung's chart, they are also number one on my invite rankings system which rewards points on how well a team performs at invites. My formula is the winning teams point score divided by your score times the number of teams in the meet times 100.

So at the Mcfarland Invite, Ridgeview won with a score of 36 and there were 7 teams:
Ridgeview score - (36/36*7)*100 = 700 points
Mcfarland score - (36/69*7)*100 = 365 points

As of 9.23.09, my rankings are:

ridgview	2900
stockdale	1724
highland	1170
mcfarland	826
north	559
shafter	513
wasco	481
foothill	399
centennial	330
east	325
taft	286
liberty	255
arvin	234
frontier	215
independence	196
garces	184
golden valley	144
south	133
tehachapi	123
bakersfield	113
bchs	71

Noise Invite Power Rankings HERE (excel file)

Week #3 (September 21)

Varsity Boys

Overall score last week

1. Buchanan 60 1

2. Ridgeview 170 5

3. Clovis West 180 3

4. Clovis 200 6

5. McFarland 224 2

6. Madera South 226 4

7. Avenal 265 9

8.Roosevelt 288 7

9. Highland 297 8

10. Stockdale 316 10

11. Clovis North 458 12

12. Clovis East 462 11

13.Madera 509 18

14. Golden West 531 17

15. Shafter 543 14

16. Redwood 574 13

17. Wasco 595 15

18. Tulare 637 20

19. East Bakersfield 690 16

20. Bullard 716 NR

-compiled by Larry Lung,

Central California

Cross Country Chair

Blair Slaton is the Fastest at Ming

By the time of the varsity races, the weather had turned comfortable. The poor underclassmen have to face
the heat and the daunting three mile course in the first meet of many of their lives. Why everyone runs 3 miles
at this season opening meet is a question that never gets answered. Year after year at the coaches meeting
after the season, they all agreed that only the varsity should run three miles.

Despite this decision, the EB Invite remains three miles for everyone. What I would like to see is make it a run
around the lake and on the backside of the lake, run on the trail instead of the bike path. This course would be
around 2 miles and year after year it would be the same. The 3 mile course has changed over the years, so
comparing times is difficult.


Another change that would be to make all the races by class like they do at many early season meets. Then
coaches would not have to put underclassmen on varsity and the competition for class bragging rights would
be interesting and would go on for four years. Plus everyone runs the same distance and it would be easy to
compare times.


But this is not the race we have, so here is what I saw.

The boys race played out in much the same manner as the girls race. Again it was a true team battle that
would come down to the team's fifth runner. The team race was also a contest between the young guns of
Stockdale versus the veterans of Highland. The trio of Van Zandt, Thomas and Lewis have been 1,2,3
knockout punch for years now but have placed second at the valley meet two years in a row. This is their
senior at Highland and they want a valley title.

Stockdale with Curtis Kelly (soph), soph Cameron Miller and much anticipated frosh Connor Fisher filling out a
squad with two veteran runners in Slaton and Burke are the highest ranked Kern County squad in division one.
So at the 1.7 mile point in the race, it was no surprise to see two Mustangs and two Scotsmen with Sandles
(Golden Valley) at the front of the race. Behind them was one from each school too.

In the last mile, Slaton took the lead and held on for the win in under 16 minute as he predicted. When I found
him with his family after the race, he was in his sweats and looked like he was waiting for his race to start.
Behind him was an exciting race for second between Lewis (Highland) and Kelly (Stockdale). Lewis came on
strong and when Kelly looked over his shoulder it was all over for him.

Behind them was Sandles for fourth place. Then the team competition got fierce Van Zandt took 5th for
Highland, Miller took 6th for Stockdale and was followed by Ivan (HHS). Then it went Stockdale and Highland
again. But Burke came in 15th and sealed the win for the Mustangs.

Team scores -- 1. Stockdale 33; 2. Highland 43; 3. Centennial 120; 4. East 122; 5. North 153; 6. Liberty 155;
7. Frontier 184; 8. Foothill 191; 9. Garces 215; 10. Golden Valley 275; 11. South 298; 12. Bakersfield 349.

Individual results -- 1. Slaton, St, 15:52; 2. Lewis, H, 16:01; 3. Kelly, St, 16:04; 4. Sandles, GV, 16:08; 5. Van
Zandt, H, 16:20; 6. Miller, St, 16:22; 7. Esquivios, H, 16:26; 8. Fisher, St, 16:30; 9. Turner, H, 16:36; 10.
Hinsley, C, 16:40; 11. Bautista, Fo, 16:46; 12. Lazarit, E, 16:51; 13. Lopez, N, 16:53; 14. Shotts, L, 16:55; 15.
Burke, St, 16:56; 16. Mosqueda, E, 17:01; 17. Millan, C, 17:04; 18. Hernandez, N, 17:15; 19. O'Malley, G, 17:
24; 20. Jungo, H, 17:26.

JV--Stockdale 36, Frontier 61, Highland 79; FS--North 51, Foothill 98, Bakersfield 124

Baker Takes The Win at Lake Ming

By the time of the varsity girls race, the weather had turned comfortable. The poor underclassmen have to face
the heat and the daunting three mile course in the first meet of many of their lives. Why everyone runs 3 miles
at this season opening meet is a question that never gets answered. Year after year at the coaches meeting
after the season, they all agreed that only the varsity should run three miles.

Despite this decision, the EB Invite remains three miles for everyone. What I would like to see is make it a run
around the lake and on the backside of the lake, run on the trail instead of the bike path. This course would be
around 2 miles and year after year it would be the same. The 3 mile course has changed over the years, so
comparing times is difficult.


Another change that would be to make all the races by class like they do at many early season meets. Then
coaches would not have to put underclassmen on varsity and the competition for class bragging rights would
be interesting and would go on for four years. Plus everyone runs the same distance and it would be easy to
compare times.


But this is not the race we have, so here is what I saw. In the varsity girls race it ran true to form. Without
Ridgeview there, it was going to be a showdown between Stockdale's depth and Bakersfield's front runners.
When the gun went off, Jorey Broughton from Centennial took off with Meadows of Frontier not to far behind.


For Meadows, this was a return to running for her. Now a junior, she is hoping to return to the form of her
freshman year when she qualified for the state cross country meet. Since then, she had a great freshman track
season up to the West Coast Relays where she ran 5:33 (1600) and 11:53 (3200).

The following day she ran in her school's invite and has been injured ever since. Her lower leg injuries have
kept her from competing her sophomore year. Today was to be her return but at the halfway point of the race,
her legs went numb and she could not continue. Hopefully she will get better soon.

As the race proceeded through the Lake Ming parking lots, the crowd headed to the 1.75 mile mark, where
the race peels off to the campgrounds for the final hilly mile before return to Lake Ming. The lead pack reach
this point in 11:30. The pack included Guzman (Garces), Baker (Bakersfield), Barton (Liberty) and Haney and
Nelson of Stockdale.

At the finish, Baker put 16 seconds on her cross town rival Barton and took the win in a time of 19:19 which
was the second best Driller time of the day (boy or girl). Barton also ran the final mile well and outdistanced
Guzman by 15 seconds. On the subject of injuries, Barton had an injury plagued sophomore year to. At a late
season meet she hurt ankle and then in the off season she broke her arm snow boarding. This set her back in
track but after a summer of training, she look good at this meet.

By the finish, two North athletes (Moyer and Perez) moved up through the field and took 6th and 7th and with
the success of their JV squad (they won the JV race), this should be a good season for the Stars. I was told
that their top runner was injured and did not run at this meet

But the team battle was between Stockdale and Bakersfield. The Drillers took first, for one point and
Stockdale took 4th (Haney), 5th (Nelson) and 8th (Patel) for 17 points. Then Garcia and Lerma came in 11th
and 12th and the Drillers had 24 points with three runners in. Shuford came in 15th, so the Drillers now had 39
points with 4 runners in. Stockdale's fourth (Jones) came in 19th so now the score is Drillers 39 and Mustangs
36. Then the wait for the 5th runner began but the suspense was soon ended when the fifth Stockdale athlete
finished before Bakersfield's 5th.

Team scores -- 1. Stockdale 61; 2. Bakersfield 84; 3. Garces 96; 4. Foothill 126; 5. Liberty 144; 6. North 157;
7. Centennial 168; 8. Highland 174; 9. East 202; 10. Golden Valley 207; 11. South 289; 12. Frontier DNF.

Individual results -- 1. Baker, B, 19:19; 2. Barton, L, 19:35; 3. Guzman, G, 19:50; 4. Haney, St, 19:57; 5.
Nelson, St, 20:11; 6. Moyer, N, 20:20; 7. Perez, N, 20:24; 8. Patel, St, 20:30; 9. Rodriguez, H, 20:32; 10.
Fernandez, Fo, 20:56; 11. Garcia, B, 20:59; 12. Gabby, B, 21:06; 13. Garcia, E, 21:09; 14. Broughton, C, 21:
26; 15. Shuford, B, 21:37; 16. Brown, G, 21:45; 17. Veloz, Fo, 22:03; 18. Mayberry, H, 22:07; 19. Jones, St,
22:14; 20. Thoennes, L, 22:17.

JV--North 50, Stockdale 56, Foothill 145

Lynch & Baker Lead Ridgeview to Team Titles at Wasco

Tijerra Lynch and Robby Baker lead their Ridgeview team mates to the team titles. It was a hot (95 ) muggy afternoon and the course was challenging with a number hills and lots of turns on the one mile loop course. The JV and Frosh/Soph ran two loops and the Varsity ran three loops.

Varsity Boys - The Ridgeview boys won with 20 points (15 points is as low as one can score). Right from the start, they took the lead with a nice pack of purple and gold. After the first hill only a Wasco runner or two was able to stay with the wolf pack. After the first lap, the lead pack included five Ridgeview and three Wasco athletes and they went through the first mile in under 5:10.

After the second lap, Baker and Solis took control of the race and Baker took the win in 15:30. He was followed by his team mates: Solis 15:39 (2nd), Garcia 15:43 (3rd), Lewis 16:21 (6th) and Madrigal 16:54 (8th).Wasco came in second overall with 40 points and was lead by Patino 15:50 (4th) and Mendoza 16:07 (5th).Tehachapi's top runner was Horowitz who ran 17:12 for 10th place and he was followed by Arvin's top runner Gonzalez who ran 18:29. Bakersfield Christian's top runner was Beard who ran 20:22 for 24th place. The teams finished in this order as well behind Ridgeview and Wasco.

Varsity Girls - The Ridgeview girls got two points to a perfect score of fifteen and their race was similar to the boys race. They started in a nice pack that quickly took the lead. After the first lap, Lynch, Huziar and Armendariz lead the race. They were followed by Tehachapi's Whitson and their three team mates.

Much like the boys race, Lynch took the lead on the third lap and took the win in a time of 19:22. She was followed by Huizar in 19:43 and Armendariz in 20:09. Whitson of Tehachapi lead her team to second with her fourth place finish in 21:36. She was followed by Ridgeview's Morgan (22:01), Tehachapi's Evans (22:12) and
Ridgeview's Voss (22:25), Tarr (22:26) and Johnson who ran 22:38 for 10th place.

In 9th place was Bakersfield Christian's Powell who ran 22:37 and Wasco's top runner was Valencia in a time 22:59 for 11th place. Wasco came in third and BCHS came in fourth in the team race.

Taft & Centennial Hit the Sand at the Morro Bay Invite

The Morro Bay Invitational was run under cloudy and cool conditions which lead to ideal racing conditions. The course, which changes yearly due to tide and dune conditions was measured at
roughly 2.6 miles. No team scores are kept at this fun and unique event.

In the boys race, Centennial's Eric Millan (So) had the fastest time of 16:04 (6:10 pace) and came in 16th overall. The top Taft athlete was freshman Phillip Taylor, who ran 17:57 for 81st place.

VARSITY BOYS
Place Time first Last Grade School
1 14:53 Sergey Sushchikh 11 DP
16 16:04 Eric Millan 10 Centennial
57 17:16 Nick Treiberg 10 Centennial
68 17:26 Hayden Raney 11 Centennial
69 17:27 Brandon Ballard 11 Centennial
81 17:57 Phillip Taylor 9 Taft
87 18:03 Brad Hinsley 11 Centennial
95 18:13 Joel morentin 10 Taft
100 18:33 Devin Capela 11 Taft
102 18:45 Chris Lopez 9 Taft
103 18:45 Travis Morro 11 Taft
104 18:45 Michael Hernandez 10 Taft
106 19:05 Misael Pelayo 12 Centennial

In the girl's race, Taft's Megan Thompson (12) was the fastest Kern County athlete. She ran the course in 19:08 (7:22 pace) for 11th overall

VARSITY GIRLS
Place Time first Last Grade School
1 17:53 Annie Mooney 11 Mission College Prep
11 19:08 Megan Thompson 12 Taft
48 21:03 Margret Martinez 12 ?
50 21:13 Daisy Guitron 10 Taft
53 21:19 Chloe Carlson 9 Centennial
76 22:54 Jordyn Perry 10 Centennial
77 23:00 Melissa Megar 11 Centennial
78 23:00 Elizabeth Sanchez 11 Centennial
79 23:02 Sarah Moore 11 Centennial
80 23:03 Nayomi Velasquez 11 Centennial
81 23:37 Lillybeth Pedroza 10 Taft
83 23:41 Melissa Ballard 9 Centennial
88 24:58 Mayra Aguilar 12 Taft
89 25:15 Justine Montelongo 9 Centennial
91 25:35 Bernice Florez 12 Taft
94 28:03 Marion Ruan 10 Taft

Complete Results HERE.

Photos HERE.

Safari Run on 9.12.09

Safari Run
September 12, 2009

Custom awards in these run divisions:
10K: Under19 and 10-year age groups after.
5K: Under 12, 13-14, 15-19 and in 10-year
age groups after.


Benefiting The Scholarship Program of the Kern Council on Physical Fitness and Sports

Race Flier HERE.

Photos by Ron's Run HERE.

DIVISION RESULTS FOR 10K RACE

Ashley Barton (Liberty Jr) won the 10k in a time of 44:35 and Eddie Resendez won the mens 10k in 39:09.

DIVISION RESULTS FOR 5K RACE

In the 5k, the masters ruled. Herve Pastre won the 5k in 19:18 which is an amazing time for a 62 year old. On the women's side, 44 year old Pam Boyles won in a time of 20:26.

Ridgeview Boys and Shafter Girls Start the Year with Wins

Everyone's goal is to be running at Woodward Park on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That is the day of the State cross country meet. Several local schools decided to preview the course early and had good results.

The Highlander Invite is a very low key affair much like the EB Invite. No meet sponsor, race bibs, computer timing or results but one does get to preview the state course (of course last year it was marked wrong).

In the boys race, Robby Baker (16:33) picked up were he left off last year, with a clocking that was only a second or two off his best time. His team includes three who placed in the top 15 at last year's valley meet. With this core of veteran athletes, the boys won the team title over their divisional rivals Roosevelt and Shafter.

The Shafter boys took third and were lead by Villalpando (17:39). Last track season, Shafter had numerous underclassmen breaking 5 minutes in the 1600 and by November they will be tough.

On the girls side, it was a real team affair. The top 5 for Ridgeview and Shafter tied 50 to 50 so the title had to be decided by the 6th runner:

20. Lenea Lara, 25:34 (Shafter)
31. Boss, 26:20 (Ridgeview)

So Shafter took the crown despite Ridgeview placing 1st, 3rd, 5th, 16th and 25th to Shafter's 4th,7th,11th,13th and 15th. This shows how cross country is a team sport and that one needs a fifth and sometimes 6th runner to make one's team complete.

Ridgeview's Lynch (21:11) was first overall and Moriah Millwee (21:59) came in 4th for Shafter.

Highlander Invitational

5K course at Woodward Park

Boys

Team scores -- 1. Ridgeview 32; 2. Roosevelt 65; 3. Shafter 106; Avenal 108; 5. Sunnyside 11.

RIDGEVIEW 2. Baker, 16:33; 4. Garcia, 17:07; 6. Solis, 17:39; 7. Lewis, 17:51; 13. Magno, 18:30; 24. Madrigal, 18:59; 32. Hobson, 19:44; 37. Samora, 20:00.

SHAFTER -- 5. Jesus Villalpando, 17:39; 17. Jesus Aros, 18:44; 25. Chris Handel, 19:02; 26. Erik Manzo, 19:04; 28. Simon Viss, 19:09.

Girls

Team scores -- 1. Shafter 50; 2 Ridgeview 50; 3. Sunnyside 87.

SHAFTER -- 4. Moriah Millwee, 21:59; 7. Carli Preston, 23:01; 11. Cambria Tudor, 23:28; 13. Irene Rodriguez, 23:56; 15. Ashley Foster, 24:46; 20. Lenea Lara, 25:34.

RIDGEVIEW 1. Lynch; 21:11; 3. Huizar, 21:33; 5. Armendariz, 22:24; 16. Carr, 24.46; 25. Morgan, 25:59; 27. Johnson 26:04; 31. Boss, 26:20.

Results On Athletic.Net HERE.

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Nice Sweep by the Mustangs

Stockdale has been mentioned as one of the top four teams in the valley in division one and today they showed why. Their boys and girls squads sweep the team titles. The boys also won the JV team title and their girls came in second in the JV race.

In the boys race, Blair Slaton (15:52) took the win and his team mate Kelly came in 3rd (16:04). The key to their team win was Miller's 6th place (16:22) and Fisher's 8th place (16:30) finish. While most know Slaton, Kelly and Burke (15th overall at 16:56) from track and previous cross country seasons, Miller and Fisher really stepped up big time at this season opener.

Besides having their top 5 in the the top 15, they also won the JV race over Frontier. If Ridgeview attended, it would have been an interesting battle for the team title.

On the girl's side, the Mustangs were lead by Haney (19:57) who came in fourth and was followed by her team mate Nelson (20:11) . Newcomer Patel came in 8th (20:30) and then there was a gap to their fourth athlete Jones (22:14) who came in 19th.

The Drillers had four in before Stockdale had their fourth but as was the case last year, BHS has not found a fifth runner and ended up losing 61 to 84. With four runners in, the score was Stockdale 34 and BHS 39. Stockdale's 5th came in 27th and BHS's came in 45th. These two squads are in division one so come November it will be interesting to see if the drillers find a 5th girl. A Stockdale athlete also won the JV race and they came in second in the JV race.