Champs crowned at final meet
EELEY — The Imperial Valley League cross-country championship was held at Sunbeam Lake here on Friday morning marking the end of another competitive season between local runners.
The event was the third cluster meet of the season, which included the Imperial Valley schools with participating teams as well as Palo Verde Valley.
As the final IVL meet of the season, the event also crowned the individual champions and team champions for this season.
The individual girls’ and boys’ title remained at Southwest High for another year as Sabrina Benavides and Nathan Garcia defended the titles they won last year, respectively.
Friday marked Benavides’ fourth IVL individual champ honor, while Garcia earned the top honor for the second time in his high school career.
“I was happy and sad at the same time,” said Benavides of her emotions before her final IVL race. The Eagle senior completed the three-mile course in 18:24, breaking the 19:26 she set last season.
“I did start faster than normal,” Benavides said with a smile. “I felt like we were all going faster, so I just went with it. I was able to able to keep up that pace, so I was happy.” Benavides said she was very excited to know she shaved so much off her time and was looking forward to the rest of the season, which includes the CIF and State Championships in the coming weeks.
“Last year I missed going to state by one, so this year I’m hoping to make it to state,” she said.
Similar to Benavides, Garcia also said he had mixed emotions before the race.
“Well, I was really nervous actually,” said the Eagle senior with a smile. “I thought this was the meet that my rival (Imperial High’s) Hector (Nichols) would get me, so I started a lot faster.”
Garcia was also able to maintain his pace despite the hot temperature and worked to cross the finish line in 15:44, beating out the 16:04 he ran at Sunbeam last season.
While Southwest High took home the individual IVL crowns, the team championships went to Brawley Union and Calexico highs.
The Wildcat girls and the Bulldog boys worked to win this year’s titles away from Southwest High, who were the defending girls’ and boys’ title holders.
Helping Brawley to the girls’ title this year was freshman Jaasiel Contreras. The 14-year-old came in first for her team and second overall finishing in 18:57, just a few paces behind Benavides.
“It’s such a surprise, honestly,” Contreras said with a smile. “I really didn’t think I could make it or help the team.”
Contreras said she decided the join the team after seeing them train when she was out for a run of her own as part of her boxing regimen.
“I’ve actually always liked running because I started doing it with boxing,” she said.
Contreras said she enjoyed her first year on the team tremendously and enjoyed meeting other runners and traveling with the team.
Like the Wildcats, the Bulldogs boys fought to gain back the IVL crown they lost last season.
Leading the way for Calexico was junior Edgar Hurtado, who was the first Bulldog to cross the finish line and fourth overall finisher, completing the course in 17 minutes.
Also finishing in the top 10 for Calexico were Daniel Pinela (17:09) and Gibran Torres (17:11).