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