Monroe Boys Become Statesmen

After the bitter taste of last season, this one was as sweet as could be for Germain Ortiz of Monroe High.

The junior suffered a leg injury at the City Section cross-country preliminaries last season and wasn’t nearly at full strength when the Vikings finished eighth at the finals.

But Ortiz was in top condition this time and it made all the difference.

Ortiz came through with the sixth fastest time to lead the Monroe boys to second place behind perennial power Belmont in the City final Saturday at Pierce College.

Belmont, which won its 15th title in 18 years, finished with 34 points followed by Monroe with 75 and Birmingham with 88.

The Vikings earned their first trip to the state championships Nov. 27 at Woodward Park in Fresno.

“It doesn’t get any better unless we take first and I think we’ll have to wait a while for that,” Coach Dean Balzarett of Monroe said.

Ortiz, who posted a time of 16:02 in the preliminaries Nov. 10, showed marked improvement with a clocking of 15:25 over the muddy, three-mile course.

Teammate Leon Buchanan, a senior, wasn’t far behind in 11th place with a time of 15:47.

Ortiz and Buchanan received strong support from sophomore Juan Guzman in 23rd at 16:16, Omar Ortega in 24th at 16:19 and freshman Paramjit Singh in 43rd at 16:50.

Ruben Ruiz of Birmingham finished 12th in 15:47, teammate Lino Ortiz was 17th in 16:07 and Damian Mendoza of Cleveland was 20th in 16:12.

In the girls’ meet, junior Natalie Stein of North Hollywood was hoping to challenge her career best of 17:56 that she equaled at the Sunset Six League meet two weeks ago.

Stein wound up a little short but finished second in 18:02 to qualify for the state meet for the third consecutive year.

Stein finished well behind senior Valerie Flores of San Pedro, who ran away from the field in a course record of 17:13.

Flores, who has made dramatic improvement since last season, led the Pirates to their first title with 48 points.

“In the first downhill, she just ran past me and I couldn’t keep up with her,” Stein said. “I can’t run that fast.”

She led the Huskies to fifth place with 145 points. Daisy Del Rio of North Hollywood finished 16th in 19:52 and teammate Anielkha Tijerino was 18th in 19:56.

Melissa Astete of Birmingham was 15th in 19:46.