Cajon posts pair of 5-point wins over San Gorgonio
Saturday, October 31st, 2009 Arroyo Valley HS - San Bernardino, CA
Summary by Eric Abrams - Cajon HS
Ideal conditions for racing brought out hundreds of cross country fans for this anticipated SAL finals. The stage was set for drama and boy did drama unfold.
SETTING THE STAGE: Coming into the two races, there was no clear favorite. On the girls side, Cajon dominance was tested at the second SAL meet where San Gorgonio flexed their muscle and came away with the win. A strong/young Pacific squad placed third by a mere two points at that meet leaving no clear favorite for today's race. On the boys side, Cajon won the first two meets, however, San Gorgonio was close without their injured number one runner. This meant that Cajon could not stumble and needed to improve to win at finals.
HOW THINGS SHOOK OUT: At 8:00 am sharp, the girls tackled the course. Defending champion Antoinette Padilla of San G set a very fast pace from the start. Sole of Cajon, Maldonado of Pacific and Garcia of Arroyo Valley kept pace for the first mile when Padilla and Sole made a move at the 1700m mark. Midway through, the defending champion Padilla shifted into a gear that no others could find as she cruised to her title defense in impressive fashion, winning in 18:21 for 3 miles. Cajon's Sole (18:39) held off a charging Garcia (18:44) for second. Maldonado (Pacific) and Avila (Colton), both freshman rounded out the top five. Both Garcia and Avila qualify for CIF as individuals. The battle heated up in the remaining spots as San G and Cajon shuffled for position in the closing mile. Cajon placed three in the top seven and San G had four in the top eleven. Talk about close. You could point to several key finishes and places that lead to this very close outcome. Behind Padilla, two packs developed. What really helped the Cowgirls was winning those pack battles. Sole led the chase pack to the finish line and Gagner (19:40) led the second pack to the line. The story of the day aside from Padilla's dominance was a recovery from an early fall by Amberleen Lee that nailed down the victory for Cajon, handing the Cowgirls their sixth consecutive SAL title. Lee fell in the second hundred meters of the race and got up in 36th place. Bloody and bruised, she managed to bounce through the pack to run a personal best time and finished 13th, ahead of San G #5 runner.
When the dust had settled from a great girls race, the boys kicked up some dust of their own. The early pace was set by Christian Garcia of Pacific. Home course favorite Tim Abarca held pace during the first mile. Meanwhile, somewhere in the middle of the pack early on was Julio Ayala of Cajon. Ayala, typical of his style, raced past runners and took the lead just before the midway point. The only chaser was Andres Martinez of San G. Ayala (15:35) nailed down the victory in the last 800m and finished with a blistering kick to win by 12 seconds over Martinez. Abarca ran very well and finished third a few clicks ahead of early race leader Garcia of Pacific. Both runners cracked the 16 minute barrier. Yovanny Ramirez turned in a lifetime best 16:02 to finish 5th after finishing 11th at the last SAL meet. It was his performance and that of James Stallworth (Cousin of 1970's Steeler Hall of Famer John Stallworth) running 16:28, who impressed coaches in launching them to a second straight title. They, along with Garza, Vanderveer and Rutledge all finished in the top 13. San Gorgonio placed three runners ahead of Cajon's third, but Cajon got six in front of G's fifth to help in their quest for a repeat. Only five of the top fifteen runners in the boys race will return next season.
