Lodi girls keep title streak alive; boys take 2nd
TRACY — Add a 15th consecutive league title for the Lodi High girls cross-country team.
Competing at the Tri-City Athletic League’s No. 3 meet at Eagle Lakes on Wednesday afternoon, Lodi raced past Lincoln for a sweep at all three league meetings. Lodi finished with 36 points for the title, followed by Lincoln at 64 and St. Mary’s 87 to round out the top three teams. Tokay was sixth at 128 points.
But winning the league title was not an easy task for the Flames.
“Very hilly, and with all the flooding, the trails are just covered in riverbottom sand,” said Lodi coach Greg Wright. “We couldn’t even ride our bikes along the course. Running on that is tough. Half the course was sand.”
Lodi had five girls place in the top 10. Leading the way was Frida Rodriguez, who took fifth place with a time of 22 minutes, 18 seconds. Maria Hernandez followed closely, taking sixth at 22:26, and Yasmin Melendrez seventh at 22:31. Ruth Hernandez was eighth at 22:42, and Paris Heiser 10th at 22:55. Pamela Decko was 14th for Lodi at 23:21, and Jordan Morton was 16th at 23:30.
“Ruth was having a hard time today,” said Wright of Hernandez. “Apparently she stayed up all night studying for a test, and the younger girls really stepped up, like Frida, a freshman. We had four underclassmen in there scoring.”
Wright is proud of the older girls on the team working with the future runners such as Rodriguez and Maria Hernandez.
“They knew the younger kids would overtake them one day,” said Wright, “and they had the team in mind, and really mother henned them along.”
Tokay’s Janette Vazquez took 11th place at 22:57, and Katian Reedy was 12th at 23:04.
For the boys, St. Mary’s, which split the first two league meets with Lodi, won with 43 points, and Lodi second at 48. Tokay saw its streak of winning seven consecutive league crowns come to an end, as it took fifth place at 120 points.
“What happens is, the league meet is the tiebreaker,” said Wright of the tie-breaking criteria. “St. Mary’s came out and ran the first mile really aggressively, and it was a good strategy. I think our guys were thinking they took off too fast and they would catch them on the hills. I think the
boys put too much pressure on themselves today, and it didn’t work out.”
Lodi was hurt with injuries when it was on its two-week fall break. One of the Flames’ top runners in Lucas Fonda got hurt. There were a few guys who helped out with grape harvest.
“But no excuses, St. Mary’s just ran a better race today,” Wright said.
Peter Vo took second place for Lodi at 17:25, just behind St. Mary’s Karl Winter, who had a time of an even 17 minutes that allowed him to set the course record.
“Peter ran well for the boys, and he lost to a really good runner,” said Wright of Vo and Winter.
Bryson Goehring was seventh at 18:27. Placing in the top 20 for the Flames were Jesus Santillan, 12th at 18:40; Nic Bersi, 13th at 18:41; and James Angel, 14th, at 18:42. Fonda was 22nd at 19:14, and Casimiro Rodriguez 28th at 19:56.
Cameron Wisely took eighth place for Tokay at 18:28. Homero DeLaCruz was 16th at 18:45, and Alek Francovich 18th at 18:57.
This weekend, Lodi will be in Southern California to take part at the Mt. Sac CrossCountry Invite at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut. Wright calls this event the “biggest cross-country meet in the world.”