ESL teams continue to show improvement
League championship meet is March 18
There were a couple of sprinkles during the final race of the day, but the first East Sequoia League cross country meet hosted by Strathmore High School in several years was completed Thursday at the Porterville Sports Complex after being postponed the day before and moved.
“We were really excited to host for the first time,” SHS head coach Michael Martinez said. “And we thought, for what the world’s going through currently, we thought it was a wonderful turnout and participation from all the schools. The feedback we got from everyone, they were really excited and really happy to be here.”
Corcoran won the boys’ 5,000-meter race with 21 points, Lindsay (52) placed second, Strathmore (69) third, Granite Hills (77) fourth and Summit Charter (120) fifth. Due to some confusion, the girls ran a 2.9-mile course. The Panthers won again with 18 points, the Cardinals in second with 46 and the Bears finishing third with 67.
Corcoran’s Paul Quintanilla (16:17.53) won the boys’ race while his teammate Paulina Guerro (17:55.77) won the girls.
Farmersville, Woodlake and Sierra Pacific also competed but did not have enough runners to score in either the boys or girls race. Strathmore and Granite Hills did not have enough girls to score either. Lindsay vs. Corcoran In their head-to-head matchup, Lindsay ran against Corcoran. Overall, the Cardinals scor
ing finishes were Nicolas Velasco (18:04.70) in sixth, Diego Vasquez (18:29.10) seventh, JC Jimenez (19:52.33) 11th, Hanival Osorio-martinez (20:12.76) 14th, and Gabriel Jimenez (21:14.13) 19th.
Corcoran’s and Ahmed Ahmed (16:50.89) placed first and second in the matchup and overall.
“I was so happy with our young guns. They’re overachievers,” LHS head coach Joe Dixon said. “Diego Vasquez jumped up into fourth in the group. It was really nice. Lovely course, kids had a good time. Just proud of them. They’re working hard and starting to see their times come down. We had some PRS.”
Lindsay’s Esmeralda Cisneros (20:18.42) placed sixth overall for the highest finish by a local girl. She was followed by teammates Genesis Paz (21:22.75) in ninth, Crystal Reyes (22:24.40) in 13th, Aimee Aguayo (23:11.03) in 21st and Emma Perezchica (23:31.36) in 22nd.
“The girls, they did better than they did last week. And they did better than they did the week before that. So they’re improving every week,” Dixon said.
On the season, Dixon said every race has been “like a gift.”
“It’s been fun because we’re just happy to be out here in the fresh air competing,” Dixon said. “You know, we thought we wouldn’t be able to do that. So every race is like a gift. We’re going to get eight meets; we normally get like 13-14, so we’re just happy to get that, and the girls and the boys have a really good attitude. They’re getting back in shape, and we’ll use track and field – this is a base for track and field.”
Strathmore vs. Granite Hills
Strathmore boys won the head-to-head dual with Granite Hills 25-30, but Granite’s Jose Zavala (18:03.97) won the race and placed fifth overall in the boys’ race for the highest finish of all area runners and a season record.
“I was glad that those Strathmore guys pushed him in the beginning of the race because that’s what he needed,” GHHS head coach Marty Kouyoumtjian said. “He wanted to improve his times and I think they actually helped him.”
Overall for Strathmore boys, Emilio Valencia (19:36.20) placed 10th, Valentin Torres (19:57.78) 12th, Juan Fuentes (20:00.20) 13th, Luis Gomez (20:54.32) 17th, and Oswald Fernandez (22:31.08).
“It’s been going good,” coach Martinez said. “We feel like all the kids have been getting stronger. They’re happy to have a season and I think that ….They come out to step up and work hard and really push forward and really try to do the best that they can. So we’re really proud of all of them. Not just our team but all the teams that are apart of cross country.”
For Granite, Zuriel Garcia (20:29.58) was 15th, Mario Alcarez (20:40.94) 16th, Robert Ortiz (21:01.71) 18th and Brandon Pulido (24:48.49) 33rd. Both Ortiz and Pulido are wrestlers and football players that Kouyoumtjian, who also coaches wrestling at Granite, convinced to run and help complete the team.
In the girls’ race, Strathmore’s Alondra Morales (22:11.19) beat Granite’s Lupe Trejo (22:19.70) to the finish line for first in the headto-head race. Morales finished 11th overall and Trejo 12th.
Overall, Granite’s Celeni Tapia (22:53.16) was 18th, Strathmore’s Atalia Martinez (23:08.87) 20th, SHS’ Erica Munoz (25:20.45) 27th, GHHS’ Jazmin Bautisa (28:43.89) 33rd and Deysi Ramos (36:28.29) placed 33rd in her first race of the season.
“Girls did great,” Kouyoumtjian said. “(Ramos) finished the race. We didn’t know if she had it in her because she’s been a little bit injured. So I was just hoping it didn’t flare up in the middle of the race and then she’s gotta discontinue.”
With all that’s going on, Coach Martinez credited coaches for motivating runners and runners for continuing to show up.
“All the coaches have been trying to coach and keep them motivated and engaged,” he said. “Trying to keep their spirits up through this whole pandemic. So we’re really happy that the kids are – they’re no as big as they normally are. But we’re happy to see those kids did take that step forward and want to come out and do cross country and able to make this day happen for us.” Summit Charter Summit Charter ran against Farmersville, who had three runners for the girls’ race and two for the boys. Farmersville’s Julissa Avila (18:53.32) won the girls’ race and placed second overall.
For the girls, Summit’s Evangelique Oritz (21:12.73) placed eighth, Alexa Gomez (22:27.20) 14th, Demaree Lewis (25:32.85) 28th, Alexis Gonzalez (26:12.18) 29th, and Athena Bear (27:22.53) 31st.
For the boys, Dylan Bear (21:30.70) was 20th, Mathew Valencia (21:54.30) 21st, Marcus Paskwietz (23:19.85) 29th, Isaac Steele (25:00.33) 34th, and Logan Warren (25:27.81).
Full results are available on Athlet.net.