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Andy Noise's 2008 Cross Country Season Review:
Three years ago when I first started this endeavor, I had no idea where it would go. For twenty years, I owned a alternative record store in beautiful downtown Bakersfield and was completely immersed in the music scene. I sold the music your parents hated and most of your friends did not understand. Well now I cover a sport that most hate to do and most do not understand. With this site, I hoped to bring together the aficionados and enlighten the uninitiated. The outstanding performances these past years have made the job a lot easier. 2008 was the year of Wolf, as in the Ridgeview Wolf Pack. If you were at the league meet, you saw a lot of purple and gold up front in the race and at the awards stand. Their varsity squads went undefeated in duals and won their league meets too. Tijerra Lynch and Alex Garcia even brought home individual league titles for Ridgeview. At Valley, their girls won their school's first title in cross country and their boys came oh so close to qualifying for state. They had four runners in the top 15! 1 1 Chris Schwartz FT-B/Foothill - Bakersfield Sr 15:49 5:07 406 2 2 Johnny Sanchez ROO-F/Roosevelt High - Fresno Jr 16:05 5:12 282 3 3 Isaiah Lorenzo MAD-S/Madera South So 16:16 5:15 180 4 4 Humberto Osuna ROO-F/Roosevelt High - Fresno Jr 16:38 5:22 283 5 5 Chris Brown MAD-S/Madera South Sr 16:39 5:23 181 6 6 Asencion Mendoza WASC/Wasco High Sr 16:39 5:23 108 7 7 Brandon Croft ELD-V/El Diamante - Visalia Jr 16:41 5:23 566 8 8 Robby Baker RIDG-B/Ridgeview - Bakersfield Jr 16:43 5:24 606 9 9 Tommy Lutton CLOVN/Clovis North Fr 16:48 5:26 898 10 10 Brian Solis RIDG-B/Ridgeview - Bakersfield Jr 16:51 5:26 605 11 11 Jerrid Lewis RIDG-B/Ridgeview - Bakersfield Jr 16:54 5:27 607 12 12 Alfonso Castillo MAD-S/Madera South Sr 16:56 5:28 182 13 13 Angel Flores MAD-S/Madera South So 16:57 5:29 183 14 14 Jesus Villapondo SHAF/Shafter High So 16:59 5:29 778 15 15 Alex Garcia RIDG-B/Ridgeview - Bakersfield Jr 17:01 5:30 604 In the end only Robby Baker made it to State as an individual. To make State as an individual, one has to come in the top 14 which three of them did but they only take five individuals max. The good news for Coach Setzer is that they are all coming back next year plus they won the JV and Frosh/Soph team titles at league too. Ridgeview is the new kid on the block but in the SEYL, the old guard is still going strong. Once again the Highland boys won SEYL, came in second at Valley and qualified for the state meet. This year they had a little more competition, with Bakersfield giving them a scare in the final dual meet of the season and then East tested them at the league meet. Highland's recent success is do to their tight pack of three athletes. These three juniors have very different running styles but at the end of races they are always together at the front of the race. Van Zandt, Turner and Lewis have one more season together and I am sure it will be a repeat of past successes. Highland's girls also won a SEYL title by beating Foothill by one point at the league meet. In fact, if Foothill's Natalie Fernandez had beat Sarah Baker (Bakersfield) for the league title, there would have been a three-way time for first place because in duals Bakersfield was 6 and 0, Highland was 5 and 1 and Foothill was 4 and 2. At valley the Highland girls came in fourth and just missed going to state by two points. Their top runner, Nichole Berry did qualify for the state meet however. McFarland continues to be the top team in the county. It is interesting that Mcfarland is one of the dominant teams in division four and that Barstow is a premier team in division three. Most be something about these small towns and running. What it is mainly is good coaching, hard work and community support. As I have noted before, McFarland's boys team beat a Bakersfield All-Star team that is lead by one of the best runners in the country (Chris Schwartz) at the valley meet this year. They won all the local invites and even some big ones like Mt Sac and the Grand Masters meet. Year after year they have more sub 17 Woodward performers than the entire city of Bakersfield has which even is more amazing when you figure McFarland only has 700 students. Of that 700, half or more are girls so that leaves 300 boys eligible to run, then you take into account that locally a third of the students are ineligible to compete (2.0 gpa or better) in sports. So that leaves 100 potential runners and Mcfarland does have a football team. So out of a pool of 100, they beat all the Bakersfield schools combined! They won valley easily again and at state they came in second behind a super tough Big Bear team. They are tied for the most state cross country championships and i hope to see them take the record in the near future. But with the illogical divisional placement system used in our section, there is a fear that their success maybe rewarded with a move up in division. One can only hope that this does not happen. Runner Of The Year -- According to Dyestatcal in Division 3 it was a tie between Chris Schwartz and Mac Fleet, who split the outcomes in their only two showdowns this year. Schwartz, the talented fan favorite from Foothill high, was a Top 10 finisher at FootLocker Nationals after winning the regional meet. Fleet (San Diego) won the state meet. More D3 coverage HERE. To be continued ... |