City cross-country finals: Birminham boys, Reseda girls win team titles
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
In sixth place with 500 meters left, Jared Long of Woodland Hills El Camino Real used a late burst to take the lead around the final turn and held on to win the City Section boys’ cross-country championship in a personal-best time of 15:39 Saturday on the three-mile course at Pierce College.
Long passed favorite David Bensimon of Los Angeles Hamilton just before coming into view of the spectators lined along the closing straightaway. Bensimon finished second in 15:41, holding off the late charges of San Pedro’s Pablo Rosales (15:42) and Woodland Hills Taft’s Adrian Anderson (15:43). Also qualifying for the state finals were L.A. Bravo’s Frankie Quijada (15:46) and L.A. Garfield’s Brian Virgen (15:48).
Heading up the last hill, I kept thinking about the team,’ said Long, a senior who finished fifth in the City last year in 16:06. ‘Coming down the other side, there was nothing to save. I was tired from beginning to end but I gave it everything I had.’ Long won three meets this season but finished behind teammate Brett Schmitt at the West Valley League finals.He clocked 15:20 at the Long Beach Invitational in September, the ninth best time ever by a high school runner on that course.
Lake Balboa Birmingham won the team title with 47 points and qualified for the state meet along with runner-up San Pedro (68 points).
In the girls’ race, Valerie Sanchez of San Fernando shaved 41 seconds off her previous best to win by eight seconds over Bravo’s Karen Rosas. The Tigers senior was in front for much of the first mile, dropped back in mile two and regained the lead in the last quarter mile, finishing in 18:26. She was fifth in her heat at last week’s City preliminaries with a time of 19:07, her fastest at Pierce until Saturday.
‘I went out very confident,’ said Sanchez, who finished fifth in the City as a sophomore and sixth last year. ‘I really wanted it, so I went all-out for the win. Karen [Rosas] beat me at the prelims, but today I could see she was tired and I knew I had the better kick.’
Belmont’s Tabitha Gonzalez (18:48), Los Angeles’ Martha Pena-Zurita (18:51) and Garfield’s Jessica Wences (18:53) also qualified for the state meet.
Six of Reseda’s seven runners finished in the top 30 as the Regents won the team competition with 61 points. Birmingham (87 points) earned the second state finals berth.
L.A. Foshay’s Oscar Guillen won the Small Schools boys’ race in 16:59, and Van Nuys Fulton Prep won the team title with 38 points. Melissa Angulo of Maywood won the Small School girls’ race in 22:08, and Northridge won the team competition by 51 points. Fulton and Northridge will compete in Division IV at the state finals.
--Steve Galluzzo
-- Image from buy.lovetoknow.com