Warren Stauffer Invitational

Sat 10/02/04 - Hollydale Park (SS)

Kirby Lee Girls Photo Album

A change of hair color would suit Robyn Guggiana just fine. A course change in the Warren Stauffer cross country invitational didn’t go over as well with the Warren High senior on Saturday.

Guggiana ran 17:26 over the 3-mile course at Hollydale Park in South Gate to break her meet record despite taking a wrong turn in the final mile on a course that was rerouted because of construction.

Guggiana eclipsed her record of 17:37 in last year’s junior race over the flat layout over grass and concrete paths. Guggiana, though, had hoped to run under 17 minutes as an ongoing bet with her parents for permission to dye her brown hair a lighter shade.[ep

“They don’t want me to dye it but it’s a reward if I get into the 16s,” Guggiana said. “I just want to do something different. I am a girl. I like to experiment with hair color, earrings and things like that.’’

Guggiana, who ran with her fingernails painted with gold nail polish, won for the third year in a row and holds meet records for the sophomore, junior and senior divisions. She is the only female to break 18 minutes in meet history.

Guggiana, the two-time defending San Gabriel Valley League champion, has raced at Hollydale Park since her freshman year. But Warren coach Jay Waldron was forced to reroute the course on Saturday night because part of the layout had been blocked off by fencing.

“I think because we had not run it before I had to look up to see where I was going instead of knowing subconsciously,” Guggiana said. “I was hoping to get into the 16s so nobody would touch (the record) for awhile. Last year, I knew the course like the back of my hand.’’[ep

The Warren girls continued their dominance of their home invitational with Guggiana to defend their team title.

Warren’s combined time for the five fastest runners of 94:01 regardless of division with senior Stephany Guzman (18:44); juniors China Fleming (19:10) and Justine Akil (19:14) and sophomore Samantha Castillo (19:27) was more than two minutes faster than runner-up Birmingham (96:31).

In the boys competition, South Gate (81:11), led by the second and fifth-place finish of Frank Ruiz (15:30) and Ignacio Dominguez (15:48) in the senior race, finished second to Birmingham (81:07) by four seconds.

RESULTS

Individual

Team

Team Meet

Top Individuals