IN SPORTS: LODI GIRLS WIN CROSS COUNTRY MEET
Lodi girls win; Tokay boys and girls place second at TCAL Center Meet
STOCKTON — A nice day for a run? For the Lodi High varsity girls cross country team, Wednesday was a great day to run.
The Flames had all five point-scoring runners in the top 11 of the girls race to cruise to an easy victory in the Tri-City Athletic League Center Meet No. 1 at Oak Grove Regional Park, scoring 31 points to second-place Tokay’s 51. St. Mary’s was third at 64, with a big drop-off to fourth-place Tracy at 112.
Several Flames broke personal record, starting with the No. 1 overall runner, Ruth Hernandez, who knocked five seconds off her personal best in the 5-kilometer run at 19 minutes, 9 seconds.
“Before the race we tell each other this isn’t for us as an individual, this is for all of us. If one of us wins, we all win together,” Hernandez said. “We know we’re a team, and we know it isn’t just for one of us, it’s for all of us. If all of us do well, then we all win together. And it’s better to win together than to win alone.”
With St. Mary’s Sophia Lee in second at 19:29 and West’s Jasmine Cochiaosue in third at 19:37, the next four spots belonged to Lodi or Tokay — Lodi’s Pam Decko was fourth at 19:49 (her first sub-20 minute time), Tokay’s Kari Anema was fifth at 20:04, Lodi’s Paris Heiser was sixth at 20:26 and Tokay’s Kali Anema was seventh at 20:34. Audrey Garcia came ninth for Lodi at 20:49, and Yasmin Melendrez was the last Lodi scorer in 11th at 21:06.
“This is a pretty special group of girls,” Lodi coach Greg Wright said. “This is the 16th year we’re trying to keep the (TCAL) streak going, and what’s nice about this group is they really get along. They had lunch today, they’re really pulling for each other. In the early 2000s, there was a team like this where you saw that they really were family. This is a talented crew, but they’re nice kids that get along.”
Wright said it wasn’t always that way — last year the team, with many of the same runners, had to be sat down to work through their issues with each other. And it’s worked.
“I think we’ve bonded a lot. I personally really like being with the girls,” Hernandez said. “It feels like we’re family more than anything. We’re not forced to be friends, we just kind of are, and that makes it better.”
For Tokay, a young squad, Katiana Reedy was 10th at 20:51, Lauren Frisk was 12th at 21:28 and Angela Machado was the final scoring runner for the Tigers in 17th at 21:54.
“Most of them are sophomores. They’re young, and the first four were under 21 minutes,” Tokay coach Karey Harty said. “That’s strong for a bunch of sophomores. I’m happy.”
Tokay’s boys were pretty happy as well, losing out on the top team spot to St. Mary’s by five points, 54-59. With Lincoln’s Calvin Abbott (16:00) and St. Mary’s Daniel Winter (16:09) going first and second, Tokay’s Josue Herrera was third at 16:12 after hanging with the top two for most of the race.
“It was a little windy starting off our race, so I knew to just be smart about it, don’t take off and take the lead, so I felt pretty strong and I’m comfortable with the race that I ran,” Herrera said. “I was getting pretty tired in the last half mile, but I’m still happy with how I ran.”
Homero DeLaCruz finished sixth overall for the Tigers at 16:23, followed by Alek Francovich in seventh (16:40), Manuel Munoz in 16th (17:09) and Abel DeLaCruz in 17th (17:28).
The Tigers ran with one runner not at full strength after an allergy attack — Zac Kellogg placed 32nd, out of the scoring for Tokay, at 17:49.
“He was in the hospital this morning. It was just something, he had some sort of allergic reaction to something, so he was on IVs, and he was asleep in the hospital,” Harty said. “He got out around 11:30 or so, and I said I want a note that says you can race, because in my mind right now, you’re not racing.
“He was our sixth man, and he should have been right there with Homero.”
While Tokay knows it is a healthy runner away from competing for first place in the next meet, the uphill battle for Lodi will be a little tougher — the Flames placed fifth as a team with 102 points, led by Lucas Fonda in fifth place at 16:22.
“Today we found out how good the league is, and it’s better than we thought,” Wright said. “So we’re just going to get better. The nice thing about running is next time you come out you can get better and better. It would be a really steep mountain to climb to win a championship, but these guys will work hard, and they’ll come out each week and get better.”
For the Flames, Jesus Santillan placed 12th at 16:58, Yuan Shi was 23rd at 17:20, Luke Petersen was 29th at 17:36 and Nicholas Bersi was 33rd at 17:53.
The second TCAL Center Meet is Sept. 26 at Eagal Lakes Park in Tracy. The third league meet will be Oct. 24 at Lodi Lake.