The562’s cross country and track & field coverage is sponsored by Joe Carlson & Debbie Hughes.
The Moore League’s distance runners returned to Discovery Well Park in Signal Hill on Tuesday, with the same names finishing atop the varsity leaderboard.
Once again the Millikan boys cruised to a team victory, led by Maximiliano Ramirez who won his second straight league race in a time of 16:28.
The girls’ result changed from El Dorado, as the Poly Jackrabbits were able to finish ahead of the Wilson Bruins, setting the stage for an exciting league finals at Heartwell Park. Once again it was junior Avery Peck who took the top spot in the girls’ race with a time of 18:51.
Boys’ Varsity
A false start got the boys’ race off to a bit of a herky jerky start, and it ended up a really competitive race between three runners in the lead pack. Lakewood’s Gabriel Rojas led for much of the race Tuesday, ahead of Ramirez and fellow Millikan runner Aidan Ransom.
Lakewood head coach Daniel Sorenson said that Rojas has been putting in a lot of miles in training, including a lot of hill work, and that paid off early on in the race as he set the pace for the first two miles.
Ramirez was back in third place plotting his move to the front, and was able to hold on after getting to the lead despite a stiff challenge from both Ransom and Rojas.
“I was thinking towards the end of the second loop, to put distance between me and Gabriel and try to burn him out early, which kind of worked until the end,” said Ramirez of his race plan. “And then obviously Aiden passed him and closed the gap to me. But I took it. Barely though.”
Running through some discomfort in his knee, Ramirez was able to hold on down the final stretch of the race, with both runners gaining on him.
“I felt footsteps,” Ramirez admitted. “I looked back a little bit and saw Aidan and I was like ‘Oh man, I gotta push.’”
He was able to push through to win his second Moore League race in as many tries this season, and Millikan once again cruised in the team competition with four of the top five finishers and six of the top 10.
Ramirez heldoff Ransom by about a second-and-a-half, running a 16:28.192 to a 16:29.548. Rojas wasn’t far behind the Millikan duo, clocking a 16:36.
Millikan’s Jack Brown (16:51) and Lucas Crockett (16:53) rounded out the Top 5, followed by Wilson’s Tommy Pincherli (17:01) in sixth.
Poly and Millikan then traded off finishers from spots 7-13: Julian Wherry (17:10.416), Brandon Hinojosa-Garcia (17:10.482), Noah Chun (17:15), Lucas Lindsey (17:18), Miguel Casas (17:37), Jack Walsh (17:39) and Luke Deeble (17:42).
Fidel Perez was Cabrillo’s top finisher in 18:33, Erick Fuentes led the way for Jordan in 19:27, and Compton was led by Angel Flores in 23:41.
Girls’ Varsity
For the first time this season, we got to see Wilson’s Nadia Mejia race for her new school in a Moore League race. The defending Moore League champion finished runner-up to Peck, who was able to set a new personal best on this course, missing out on the course record by about 10 seconds.
Peck admitted she was a little nervous coming into this race. Not because of the competition, but because she ran at Clovis just three days ago and probably wasn’t at her physical peak for this one.
“I could feel it today during warm-ups, I was like, ‘Oh my God, my quads, this is scary,’” Peck said with a laugh. “But I told myself, you’ve done way too many loops and hill repeats on this course to not just go out there and give everything you got so you can get the win. And I actually consulted with Coach Mandy (Wainfan) before the race and she just told me, ‘Trust your instincts, you got this.’”
Peck’s instincts told her to break free from the large lead pack after the first loop, when she took off and sprinted out to the lead. That gave her plenty of breathing room over Mejia, teammate Sienna Young and a couple more Wilson Bruins.
She felt the burn towards the end of the race, but knew she’d built up enough cushion to hold on for the win, which came with a nearly 16 second margin. Peck said she’s pleased with where she’s at in her season, bouncing back from a challenging sophomore year that was hampered by injuries.
“It feels really good to be ahead of where I was freshman year, and I feel stronger, happier and healthier,” Peck said. “I really wanted that course record, I’ve had a pretty great season so far, and I want to get another course record like I did at ElDo, but I was only 10 seconds off and I’ve still got next year.”
Mejia took silver with a time of 19:07, followed by a pair of Poly Jackrabbits who closed out the race well. Alexa Hernandez Lujan was third in 19:32 as that trio separated itself from the field. Young ended up fourth for Poly with a time of 20:11, giving the Jackrabbits three of the top four finishers to help them to a 23-32 win over Wilson in the team scoring.
Wilson’s Avery Errecart took fifth with a time of 20:23, Emma Buth was Millikan’s top finisher in sixth, running a 20:43, and Poly’s Estefany Garcia Hernandez was right on her heels in 20:44.
Yamile Rodriguez took eighth (20:53) for Millikan, ahead of Wilson’s pair of Audrey Buckley (20:55) and Leticia Tovar (21:05) rounding out the Top 10.
Poly’s Emmie Chun (21:14) and Wilson’s Olivia Jones (21:19) capped off the scorers for the Jackrabbits and Bruins. Nike Costa led the way for Lakewood in 22:32.
The stage is now set for Wilson and Poly to duke it out in the league finals at Heartwell Park on Nov. 6, where it’ll all be up for grabs for the team title. The Bruins didn’t utilize their full lineup at Signal Hill, so there’s reason to believe they could have a better showing at Heartwell. Either way, it’s lining up to be a close and exciting race.
Peck said the loss at El Dorado three weeks ago gave her team a little extra motivation, and they’re hoping to continue building up to their showdown next month.
“We had to go out there and get the job done today, and I feel like it sets the stage nicely for league finals,” said Peck. “I’m hoping to get some great fitness in within the next few weeks, got some big workouts coming up, and I know this race will just make me stronger and more confident.
“I can’t wait to put everything I have out there at Heartwell in a couple weeks.”
