Porterville sweep first to beat Monache
Monache’s Uphoff, Suarez and Quinones awarded college roster spots
Porterville High School boys and girls swim teams remained perfect on the season with a sweep at home of Monache in the final East Yosemite League dual meet of the season.
Three members of Monache High School’s Central Section Division II Cross Country Championship teams announced their commitment to compete at NCAA Division I and II California State Universities next fall in a small ceremony at Monache Thursday afternoon.
Seniors Jaden Uphoff, Imelda Suarez and Alyssa Quinones were awarded roster spots on the cross country and track teams at Fresno State, CSU Stanislaus and CSU East Bay, respectively.
“All of them are a part of that Valley championship,” MHS head coach Seth Ishida said. “Excellent teams. They’re part of the fastest teams in the history of our town. Very special teams. I think they’re in the top 10 of the Valley in Div. II, ever in the history of cross country at Woodward Park in Fresno. So their quality is not just measured with their peers around this time, it’s all time. They are historically great runners — all three.”
The trio have excelled in both cross country and track — but the long runs are where they truly stand out. Behind Uphoff and Suarez, the Marauders won the boys’ seventh- and the girls’ sixth-straight East Yosemite League championships before leading Monache to a Valley title — the first for the boys teams and the second for Suarez who was part of the team that won in 2014. Suarez, who beat cancer as a child, was the 2017 individual Valley champion in the girls 5,000-meter race after winning with a personal record of 19 minutes and 10.5 seconds.
“She’s one of our few that has two Valley championships,” Ishida said. “She came on the 2014 championship team...she was just a baby coming in with all that responsibility and all that pressure. And then she had to take the role very quickly of taking the leadership role and mothering people and making sure everything was done correctly. She’s gotten so fast recently, she’s in the top eight in the Valley in the mile and the two mile against a national leading squad at (Clovis’) Buchanan.”
The leadership role is something both Uphoff and Suarez have embraced through their four years at Monache. As fourtime Valley and CIF State qualifiers, their hard work and commitment have paid off in a number of areas. In 2017, the two were also selected as The Recorder’s All-orange Belt Runners of the Year. It was the same year Uphoff had his highest finish at Valley with a personal record of 15:38.9 for second.
“Jaden was a great athlete when he got here,” Ishida said. “Rose to the top very quickly [and] almost broke the school record. The team has relied on him almost since he was 15 years old and that’s difficult to have that expectation level. And he’s risen to the occasion and this is just a culmination of everything that we’ve hoped for and the goals he’s set.”
Throughout her early career with the Marauders, Ishida said Quinones was a sprinter, but became a distance runner for the team. She truly began to standout in 11th grade when she placed seventh in Valley with a personal record of 19:53.8. Quinones also qualified for Valley and state in both her junior and senior years.
“Alyssa has shown tremendous range, all the way from the 400 [in track] to the 5K in cross,” Ishida said. “And she’s shooting for trying to break the record in the 800... Shes’s a super athlete and a great person and a great student.