Minjarez Now Pinning Her Hopes on Running

There’s a reason Melissa Minjarez isn’t one of the top runners on the Azusa Pacific cross-country team.

While most of her teammates have spent years training by running mile after mile, she has spent much of her training beating up men on the wrestling mat.

Minjarez, the No. 8 runner for the Cougars, is in her first year at Azusa Pacific. She came from San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, where last year she became the first female in California history to make it to the junior college state wrestling finals.

And although cross-country and wrestling are different, Minjarez said she does them both for the same reason.

“I love to work out and and I love to run,” she said. “I didn’t have anything to do [in high school], so I ran cross-country, then I started working out with some guys on the wrestling team and I got into it.”

After spending her junior year on Stockton Edison High’s wrestling team but not competing, Minjarez wrestled her senior year.

Her first match is one of her most memorable.

“The guy I wrestled looked at me like, ‘Whoa, she’s a girl,’ ” Minjarez said. “After I beat him, I felt bad. His dad was there and his dad was yelling at him [after the match].”

Her freshman year at Delta, she decided to concentrate on cross-country and didn’t wrestle, in part because she wasn’t sure women were eligible to wrestle beyond high school. She soon learned that she missed wrestling and returned to the mat the next season. Her return was difficult.

“College is hard because the wrestlers are so good,” she said. “But after taking time off, it was hard for me to get back into it.”

Despite the better competition, Minjarez finished the season ranked No. 7 in the northern part of the state and reached the state finals.

Now, however, Minjarez is running instead of wrestling because Azusa Pacific does not have a wrestling program.

Her No. 8 spot makes her the alternate for the team if it makes it to the national finals Nov. 21. She could move into the top seven if she improves the rest of the season.

“She needs to focus more on her strategy as a runner,” Coach Jaime Guerpo said. “I can guarantee her No. 8, but there’s still a possibility for seven. I don’t doubt her.”

Minjarez’s wrestling career is not over. She has wrestled at four female tournaments and is getting in shape for tournaments next summer.

“I’m trying to get a group of wrestlers together to wrestle high school teams,” she said. “Hopefully, female wrestling will be in the Olympics soon.”

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After finishing second, fourth and third in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., the Cal State Dominguez Hills men’s soccer team is hoping a younger team will provide the chemistry to win the title in the expanded CCAA.

That’s a tough task because the CCAA includes last year’s national champion, Cal State Bakersfield.

Dominguez Hills swept the Roadrunners early in the season.

The Toros, who have only five seniors, are in second place in the CCAA South Division with a 6-3-1 record. Coach Joe Flanagan said this team is his tightest group.

“We’ve always been happy with our talent, we just weren’t together as a team,” Flanagan said. “We’re getting that chemistry thing down.”

Dominguez is two points behind Grand Canyon.

One of their best players, midfielder Christian Fernandez, is new. The junior has three goals and 11 points in 11 games. Senior Alex Rodriguez leads the Toros with five goals and 13 points in 12 games.

Notes

In one of the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics’ biggest women’s volleyball matches, No. 2 Fresno Pacific defeated No. 3 Biola, 15-3, 9-15, 15-6, 15-12, last week at Biola. . . . Whittier (4-1, 2-0) defeated La Verne (2-2, 2-1) in football, 25-14, Saturday to take the lead in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. . . . Biola runner Trevor Sybert won the Biola Invitational cross-country meet Oct. 3, while the men’s team finished second to UCLA. . . . Sandy Kriezel, assistant women’s tennis coach for the lastpast three seasons at Cal Poly Pomona, has been named interim head coach for the men’s and women’s tennis teams this season.