Calexico cleans up at season’s 1st league meet
BRAWLEY — Saturday morning, bright and early — before the ambient air temperature had a chance to get too unreasonable — runners from across the Imperial Valley descended on Cattle Call Park for their first chance to go head to head with one another in a league meet.
The meet had three races (varsity runners were divided by gender, while the junior varsity ran as a coed block) held along one 3.1-mile course, traversing the outskirts of the park’s various stables and rodeo arenas.
When all was said and done, it would be the Bulldogs in garnet togs who would walk away as meet winners. They finished with team scores at least 20 points better than the runners-up in both varsity heats.
The varsity girls were the first to run, and the first to have a runaway winner.
Brawley’s Jaasiel Contreras started distancing herself from the pack early and incrementally increased her lead over the length of the course to the result that, by the time she had claimed the checkered flag, her closest competitors were only just rounding the bend into the home stretch.
The win is Contreras’s second of the season and comes off the heels of a strong performance at the big-time Dana Hills Invitational, making her one to watch going forward.
After Contreras, the runners starting coming in clumps, with Calexico squeezing five into the top 10.
Next up were the varsity boys. Their race also had a clear winner, though it was a closer thing than the girls’ run had been.
Calexico senior Edgar Hurtado was the first past the post, cruising along in an unbothered sort of way, he arrived at his destination a good 20 seconds before the No. 2 man, Holtville’s Alan Jimenez.
Speaking after the race Hurtado described his strategy for coming out on top.
“I stuck with the leaders most of the way and then I broke away over the last mile,” he said.
“I felt decent,” he went on, “The dirt (on the course) was a little loose, but overall I thought it was pretty easy.”
The next IVL meet is scheduled for Oct. 13 at Sunbeam Lake.
The top 10 finishers for the varsity races are included below:
Varsity girls
1. Jaasiel Contreras (Brawley, So.), 20:02.55
2. Kristinna Olmedo (Calexico, Jr.), 20:44.98
3. Belen Campos (Calexico, So.), 20:48.82
4. Alissa Moreno (Brawley, Jr.), 21:02.86
5. Sidney Garcia (Southwest, Fr.), 21:26.14
6. Melanie Sanchez (Brawley, Jr.), 21:56.2
7. Mia Torrez (Imperial, Sr.), 22:22.79
8. Janessa Contreras (Calexico, So.), 22:23.77
9. Kassandra Contreras (Calexico, Sr.), 22:33.92
10. Arleth Escoto (Calexico, Sr.), 22:47.64
Varsity boys
1. Edgar Hurtado (Calexico, Sr.), 17:27.8
2. Alan Jimenez (Holtville, So.), 17:47.38
3. Cristopher Carrillo (Brawley, Jr.), 17:52.82
4. Jose Munoz (Central, Sr.), 17:54.53
5. Luis Prado (Central, Sr.), 17:56.2
6. Fabian Rendon (Holtville, Jr.), 18:09.4
7. David Aguilar (Calexico, So.), 18:18.44
8. Jesus Anguiano (Calexico, Sr.), 18:25.53 9. Robert Quintero (Imperial, Sr.), 18:26.74 10. Bernardo Apolinar (Southwest, Sr.), 18:27.74