Gael Valdez
Senior Sonia Alba (center), captured third place at the South Yosemite Horizon League championships. Alba is shown with teammates Valerie Vargas (left) and Leslie Moreno at last week's Kern County Championships at Hart Memorial Park.
Del Oro’s boys cross country team showed its dominance in Kern County again by capturing a third consecutive varsity title at the South Yosemite Horizon League championships.
The SYHL championships took place at Hart Memorial Park on Thursday and Friday in rainy weather, with the varsity Suns placing first overall. The team finished with 15 points – the lowest possible score attainable at a high school cross country meet. Senior Noel Huato captured first place with a time of 14 minutes, 47.84 seconds.
“To be honest, it felt really good,” Huato said. “I knew it wasn’t going to take a hard effort to win.”
At last week’s Kern County championships, Huato finished with a faster time of 14:32.41. Huato said he felt more relaxed going into Friday’s race.
The remaining top five spots in the race were all captured by Del Oro runners. Senior Alex Garcia finished second with a time of 15:21.32, followed by sophomore Jesus Torres in third place with a time of 15:22.79. Sophomore Rodrigo Guerra finished in fourth place with a time of 15:57.94 while junior Joel Gutierrez-Ventura finished in fifth place with a time of 16:02.63.
“I was really impressed with the team,” Huato said. “My legs felt really good and seeing that I got a really good time without trying my best, it shows that I’m capable of reaching the goals I have in mind.”
Two other Suns finished in the top ten. Sophomore Edgardo Huato finished in seventh place with a time of 16:05 while Osvaldo Avina, also a sophomore, took eighth place with a time of 16:21.74.
In the girls varsity race, senior Sonia Alba finished in third place with a time of 20:20 while junior Valerie Vargas finished in 18th place with a time of 23:58.30. Sophomore Kimberly Sanchez finished 23rd with a time of 25:17.55. Seniors BellaMaria Perez Soto and Leslie Moreno finished in the top 30 with times of 33:35.30 and 33:54.19, respectively.
“Before the race, I felt pretty relaxed and confident,” Alba said. “After the race, I was just happy that I was able to finish and get a medal. It felt pretty good to get a medal, especially since it was my last league race.
“Overall, I’m just proud of myself since it was a pretty rough season.”
Alba said with the league championships behind her, she’s now focusing on training for the spring.
“I really just want to focus on track season and work on improving my times, especially since I feel like I didn’t perform my best this cross country season.”
The boys JV team also finished in first place with a perfect score of 15. In order, the top five finishers were: sophomore Bently Rodriguez at 10:48.03, junior Ivan Felix at 10:54.07, sophomore Steven Serna at 11:19.86, junior Brandon Toledo at 11:47.03, and sophomore Carlos Montano at a personal record time of 11:47.25.
The boys frosh/soph team finished in second place with 46 points, with freshman Dariel Rodriguez capturing first place with a time of 11:09.26. Freshman Angelo Rosales finished in fifth place at 11:55.44 while sophomore Robert Bueno finished in eighth place with a time of 12:25.69.
Next for the varsity Suns is the California Interscholastic Federation’s Central Section championships on Thursday at Fresno’s Woodward Park. The boys team seeks its third consecutive Central Section title. At last year’s Central Section meet, Huato won first place in the Division 3 category with a time of 16:01.56 seconds while Garcia came in third with a time of 16:25.94.