The Corcoran High School Cross Country team competed in the E.S.L Championship on Friday at Sierra Pacific High School.
The Frosh/Soph boys finished the year as undefeated champions and were led by Arnoldo Villanueva with a time of 18:04. The F/S boys dominated the competition with the closest competitor finishing four minutes behind. Other team members included Joe Romero 18:37, Christian Gonzalez 19:07, Carlos Rojas 19:38, Nicholas Elizalde 20:26, and Exgar Valdez 20:36. The JV Boys did not have a scoring team but managed to take the top three spots of the race. JV Boys were led by Alberto Martinez 18:14, Rudolph Barrera 18:16, and Francisco Villaseñor 18:55.
The varsity girls’ team keeps improving each week and ran one of its fastest times of the year. Dulce Beas surprised everyone with a spectacular effort and fell slightly short of the number five runner in Division IV, Mayeli Santos, of Sierra Pacific.
“At the half way mark, I noticed that Dulce looked extremely relaxed and I knew she could get close to Mayeli. She tried her best and left everything she had on the course. Dulce shattered her personal record by one minute and 20 seconds. Her time propelled her to top sixth in Division IV,” said Coach Isaias Ramirez. “She is still learning how to race and I’m looking forward to what she can do at the valley championship race”.
The girls’ team also finished as undefeated champions and team members include Cynthia Contreras 20:44, Roxana Lule 21:05, Vanessa Rodriguez 21:51, Victoria Cota 21:52, Angelica Salgado 24:59, Maria Martin 25:12, Samantha Matson 26:03, and Daisy Chavez 30:33.
The varsity boys race was one that was highly anticipated by everyone in attendance, added Ramirez. That race matched up Jonathan Matson against Sierra Pacific’s Guillermo Ferrer. Both had traded victories throughout the season so it was down to this final race to decide the champion, noted Coach Ramirez.
“The race appeared to be going as usual, with Jonathan leading and Guillermo following close behind him. This time Jonathan decided to start making slight moves throughout the race to try and tire Guillermo out instead of making one big move at the end,” Ramirez said.
Jonathan’s strategy worked.
“I just started doing a Fartlek workout after the first mile. I used the cones as a guide. I picked up the pace for three cones and went back to the same pace for two.” said Matson.
Matson finished in first place with a time of 15:38, Gary Austin finished third with a time 16:24, Carlos Becerra was in fourth with a time of 16:28, Pedro Perez took fifth with a time of 16:31 and other runners included Luis Rojas 17:50, Carl Inac 17:54, and Jose Huerta 18:19. The varsity boys’ team also finished as undefeated East Sequoia League champions.
