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2002 Earlybird
a HUGE success!!!
What an early season meet! 43 schools and over 1,000 athletes, converged
on the North Monterey County campus to participate in the Eighth Annual
Earlybird XC Invitational. It turned out to be the best ever! As usual,
the top ranked CCS teams were well represented, however, several top programs
made the trip to make it a great Northern California affair.
On the boys side Madera came to run on the coast and did it in fine style
with a combined team time of 83:37 (Boys ran in age groups). They showed
great depth and up front running. Host North Monterey County surprised
many and made things interesting running just off their pace with a combined
team time of 84:18. Third went to Silver Creek (84:48). The rest of the
top ten included Roosevelt (85:12), Bellarmine (86:24), Saint Ignatius
(86:27), King City (86:32), San Lorenzo Valley (87:10), James Lick (87:51)
and San Benito-Hollister (68:09).
There weren’t many surprises in the individual boys races. The freshman
race featured only one wrong turn! Daniel Rocha from Madera took advantage
of some mistakes and came away with the win in 17:25. The sophomores featured
a great team battle as Madera and North Monterey County both had 4 runners
each in the top 10 for most of the race. Benny Madrigal (16:26) from Madera
got the better of it as he held off two charging Condors at the line (Keli
Parker 16:39 & Nathan Huerta 16:40). Madera came back with a 4 &
5 finish. The Juniors had a chance to see Alex Dunn (San Lorenzo Valley)
torch the course at 15:44. Alex didn’t come to mess around and charged
to a big lead early and won by almost a minute running the fastest time
of the day!. The Seniors wrapped the day up for the boys. Kenny Frank
(Enterprise) took the lead early and fought off several challengers for
the win in 16:16.
The girls team race promised to be exciting and it lived up to its billing
with many top ranked teams doing battle. San Lorenzo Valley showed the
class that has netted them multiple Section and State Crowns running away
with the team title (59 pts.). Aptos with some good up front running placed
2nd (99 pts.). The Madera girls showed the boys that they’re not
to shabby with a fine 3rd (143 pts.) The rest of the top ten included
St Ignatius (144), Presentation (161), Soquel (181), Notre Dame-SJ (197),
Notre Dame-Belmont (215), Silver Creek (246) & Roosevelt (263).
The individuals in the girls race had some fine pace setting as Melissa
Grelli (Presentation) set a fast early pace. Ciara Viehweg (St. Ignatius)
wasn’t going to be outdone and used a slight downhill to pass Melissa
and held on for the win in 18:03. Melissa ran 18:19. Casey Nevitt ran
a well paced race for third (18:37). The rest of the top ten include Sarah
Zerzan (Notre Dame-Bel-19:02), Alicia Follmar (Saratoga-19:22), Stephanie
Hamilton (SLV-19:24), Jenny Lewis (SLV-19:29), Aisha Kamala (Soquel-19:36),
Corina James (Madera-19:41) and Vanessa Rodriguez (Madera-19:50).
Last but not least, the coaches took to the course and I’d let you
know how it went but I still had half a mile to go when the winner crossed
the line! I heard he may have ran the second fastest time of the day!
We’ll see everyone next year!
Coach Gus Ibarra
North Monterey County XC
DyestatCal Results
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