The562’s coverage of cross country and track and field is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
The562’s coverage of Millikan athletics in the 2022-23 school year is sponsored by Curtis Boyer.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly athletics in the 2022-23 school year is sponsored by Poly alum Jayon Brown and PlayFair Sports Management.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly athletics in the 2022-23 school year is sponsored by JuJu Smith-Schuster and the JuJu Foundation.
It wasn’t the perfect day that either runner had hoped for, but it was a special day for Long Beach cross country nonetheless, as Long Beach Poly’s Cameron Rhone and Millikan’s Jason Parra both qualified for the CIF State meet at Saturday’s CIF-SS Division 1 Cross Country Finals at Mt. SAC.
Both runners had been hoping to lead their teams to qualify as a group for the State meet next weekend in Fresno, but will settle for the honor of an individual ticket. The top seven teams advanced and Millikan finished 8th and Poly finished 13th; but the top five individuals not on a qualifying team also advanced, and Rhone finished fourth in 15:07 while Parra finished 12th in 15:15.
“It’s hard because my team didn’t make it, I feel guilty for making it,” said Rhone. “I wanted to go as a team and not just me, so it’s tough. But I knew this is my last season and could be my last race and I knew I had to make it to State, either as a team or as an individual.”
Parra wasn’t satisfied with his performance.
“I think I did pretty bad today, and I’m just gonna bounce back and make sure that I have a much better performance than I did today,” he said.
Members of both teams were battling flu and illness this week but gutted it out to give it a go at Mt. SAC.
Behind Rhone, Poly’s runners were Mason Lindsey (47th, 16:01), Luke Larson (51st, 16:03), Noah Addison (100, 17:09), Matthew Long (107th, 17:40), Konrad Schreiber (109th, 17:56), and Lamarr Kirk Jr. (110th, 17:58).
“We’re down some guys and we knew that was going to be tough,” said Poly coach Cameron Ford. “I’m proud of Cam that he can put on a performance like that and make it to State.”
Behind Parra, Millikan’s runners were Jack Brown (39th, 15:51), Eric Plascencia (65th, 16:20), Aiden Ransom (68th, 16:23), Maximiliano Ramirez (78th, 16:39), Jacob Fujimoto (81st, 1644), and Michael Brief (91st, 16:54).
Rams coach Pedro Ramirez said he was proud his group came so close to qualifying for State, and acknowledged that illnesses made things difficult.
“Every team had sick kids, I didn’t even want to think about that,” said Ramirez. “The team ran well, better than our rank…I’m very happy with Jason, he made it, he gets another week.”
It’s Parra’s second time advancing to State after making it last year as a sophomore.
