El Centro, Lake Havasu clash in America Youth action
Calexico runners take Southwest Invitational
EL CENTRO — The second major cross country meet of the season featuring Valley schools took place Saturday morning. Unlike last week’s Vaquero Stampede, the Southwest Invitational was a local shindig, with runners from Brawley, Calexico, Central, Imperial, Palo Verde, and Southwest converging upon Sunbeam Lake to tackle the 3.1mile course.
The meet consisted of four races, divided once again along upper/under-class, male/female lines. Unlike at Vaquero, however, all of the races followed the same course and covered the same distance.
Well, almost.
There was a slight tweak in the freshman/sophomore girls race, where a few pace-setters took a wrong turn causing them to run a leg of the course in the opposite of the intended direction. This mix-up didn’t affect course distance, but could have given the runners a slight advantage by allowing them to face a few hills earlier on than those in other races, while they had a little extra energy.
Perhaps that’s what allowed Brawley’s Jaasiel Contreras to finish with the best time of any of the day’s female participants at 20:08, 20 seconds better than the winner of the junior/senior race, Calexico’s Kristinna Olmedo.
But probably not.
After all, none of the other underclass girls managed to best Olmedo’s time. In fact, only one of them (Belen Campos, also of Calexico) managed to come within a minute of it at 21:27.
None of the other races could boast such a blowout.
Edgar Hernandez was the hero of the host school (Southwest), winning the freshman/sophomore boys run with a time of 17:48.
The upperclassmen boys race may have been the most exciting of the day, with Calexico’s Edgar Hurtado edging Brawley’s Cristopher Carrillo for first 17:08.6 to 17:09.13.
There were even fewer degrees of separation between third and fourth places, where just 0.27 seconds differentiated Fernando Fernandez of Central (17:21) and another Wildcat in Albert Rodriguez.
When all was said and done, Calexico walked away with the most hardware, picking up team wins in both girls races, the upperclass boys, and for the meet overall.
Top finishers for all four races can be found below. Freshman/sophomore girls
1. Jaasiel Contreras (Brawley, So.) 20:08.57
2. Belen Campos (Calexico, Fr.) 21:27.29
3. Karen Salais (Calexico, Fr.) 21:46.17 4. Sidney Garcia (Southwest, Fr.) 21:47.17
5. Janessa Contreras (Calexico, So.) 23:06.76
Freshman/sophomore boys
1. Edgar Hernandez (Southwest, So.) 17:48.32
2. David Aguilar (Calexico, So.) 18:02.55
3. Hector Cazares (Southwest, So.) 18:02.98
4. Daniel Pinela (Calexico, So.) 18:32.09
5. Aiden Vargas (Imperial, So.) 18:46.02
Junior/senior girls
1. Kristinna Olemdo (Calexico, Jr.) 20:28.88
2. Alissa Moreno (Brawley, Jr.) 20:35 3. Melanie Sanchez (Brawley, Jr.) 21:52.57
4. Mia Torrez (Imperial, Sr.) 22:10.49 5. Johanna Collins (Calexico, Sr.) 22:11.47
Junior/senior boys
1. Edgar Hurtado (Calexico, Sr.) 17:08.6
2. Cristopher Carrillo (Brawley, Jr.) 17:09.13
3. Fernando Fernandez (Central, Sr.) 17:21
4. Albert Rodriguez (Brawley, Jr.) 17:21.27
5. Jesus Anguiano (Calexico, Sr.) 18:12.26