Queenan takes sixth in major West Coast meet

Monache’s Ian Queenan finished sixth among some of the nation’s top runners at the Woodbridge Invitational on Saturday in Norco, Calif.

The Monache boys and girls cross country teams competed in the Varsity Gold B races. There were two Division II races, Gold A and Gold B that consisted of large schools from all over the West Coast and as far as New York, There were more than 320 schools competing in Division II.

The No. 1 team in the nation, Newbury Park of California, was the overall champion in the boys and girls meets.

Queenan placed sixth with an outstanding time of 15:32 in the three-mile race. Monache placed 16th out of 28 teams and 167th out of the more than 320 teams. Glendora won the Gold B race.

Also for Monache, Salvador Martinez finished in personal best 16:57 as he also medaled along with Queenan, placing 85th out of 200 runners. In addition for Monache, Athony Estrada finished in 17:17.5, Jake Estrada finishedin 17:18.5 Joseph Toledo finished in 17:48.5, Monte Moore finished in 18:31 and Carson Ishida finished in 20:04.6.

“Ian and Jake had solid races, but it was a very high quality race with a lot of LA power that was difficult to overcome,” Monache coach Seth Ishida said. “I was happy that the team was able to hang in there and defeat a lot of the big-city schools like Ventura, Thousand Oaks, Universal City, Canyon of Anaheim and Redlands to name a few teams that most people would recognize.

“This is the first time for this group competing at the National level at night under the lights with the cameras running and over 10,000 runners and their families around.”

The meet was live streamed and can be seen at Dyestat. “It was great to see how nationally ranked teams prepare and race,” coach Ishida said. “It is a little difficult to travel this far, but the team responded well.

“I know that Ian wanted to win the race with a sub 15 three mile, so he was a little disappointed and maybe slightly off due to the travel.”

For Monache’s girls, Jackie Castro finished 45th in 19:35. Castro stuck with the leaders for a half mile and then fell back to 60th. Castro was able to recover to run a solid 6:20 in the last mile to finish in 45th.

“She went out real fast to get away from the traffic and have cleaner lines on her run, but it really hurt her in the second mile,” coach Ishida said. “She is still getting used to this speed and it is still early in the season.”

Monache battled to finish ahead of Thousand Oaks (741 points) and El Camino Real (758 points), with Santa Ana powerhouse, Foothill, finishing first with 106 points. Monache’s young squad with only five runners would tally 732 points, just behind Pasadena with 718 points. Monache finished 234th overall. “The girls got their first experience with an elite race,” coach Ishida said. “I really wanted them to have the experience and they were a bit starstruck by the speed of the race, but they enjoyed the trip and grew stronger as a team.”

Also for Monache, Samantha Martinez finished in 22:04.5, Eilene Molina finished in 22:18.2, Nicole Torres finished in 24:27 and Evelyn Molina finished in 24:37.