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Rosemead - Over twenty Southern Section squads and
an army of runners will descend upon Rosemead High School this
Saturday
morning,
September
15th for a series of “by-grade” races that will run
from 7:45 until 11:30 in the morning. The competition is mostly
involving greater San Gabriel Valley schools, with a few from outside
the immediate area. The flat three mile campus course will be left
smoking the groups of good runners leave the area. A brief awards
ceremony will follow the last race. There is free admission
to attend, free parking on school lots, at Rosemead Park lots,
and
nearby streets, the food and snack store will be open, music and
race
announcements are scheduled, and there will be many awards for the high school
runners. An invitational tee-shirt will be for sale for $10 while supply lasts. Headlining the Boys Twelfth Grade Race will be Philip Benavides of Alhambra, a 4:26.55 1600 runner and 9:43.62 3200 star from last spring’s track season, who has worked hard, and was an impressive twenty second winner last weekend at the Don Bosco Tech Invite at Santa Fe Dam, racing 15:11. A Southern Section Division I Cross Country Finalist last fall with a 15:34 prelims run there, Benavides looks for another good effort here. Ricardo Rodriguez (La Puente) was second at Bosco Tech at 15:31, and the 4:30.79 1600 runner from track will look to narrow the margin with Benavides this week in the senior race. Steven Em (Alta Loma), a 4:33.91 1600 runner from track, had some great summer races, and should be in the thick of that senior grade race action. The host school has Rosemead Panther stars Alex Esparza and Isaias Garcia, a 4:37.82 1600 runner in track, hoping to race with that top group. Edwardo Hernandez (Rowland) was twelfth at the Bosco Tech meet last week at the twelfth grade level, with Andrew Centeno close to sixteen minutes in hilly Section meet action last November. Buckley’s Jamie Schiff was fourth in the Long Beach Small Schools Varsity race last weekend and a Section finalist last fall. The Girls Twelfth grade race action should have State Track Meet competitor Mallory Celaya, an 11:39.85 LA City 3200 meter placer for Hollywood HS leading the contest, with local rivals Melissa Merlo (Northview) and Lenore Moreno (West Covina) mid-nineteens in section action at Mt. SAC last November in Cross Country. Naomi Altamirano (Downey) was a top twenty placer and under that twenty minute barrier in the recent Long Beach Invitational. Calvary Chapel of Downey’s Amanda Kembloski, a CIF Finalist in Cross Country with her team last Fall, and Montebello’s Christine Verduzco are other possible high placers with this group. At the Boys Eleventh Grade level Joel Tibbet (Don Bosco Tech) was top ten last weekend in his school’s Invitational recently, with Mauricio Luna of La Puente twelfth there. Victor Serrano was 4:38 and 10:05 last year in track as a soph for host Rosemead, with Juan Gomez of Montebello mid 16's at Mt. SAC in section action in the sport last Fall, and Jesus Corral of Baldwin Park 10:23 in the spring as a soph for 3200 meters. At the Girls Eleventh Grade the contest is led by Molly Litherland (Calvary Chapel, Downey), who was seventh Southern Section Division V Cross Country Finals last Fall and had a 19:52 best on the Mt. SAC course. South El Monte’s Brenda Pina helped her team into the Section finals in this sport with a 20:00 run at the end of last Fall, with Evelyn Cruz (Downey) a good thirteenth in her eleventh grade race at the Long Beach Invitational a week ago. Kylie Navarette (Schurr, Montebello) was 11:59 in track for 3200 meters and 20:06 in Section CC action last fall as a ninth grader and she will battle Rosemead’s Brittnie Munoz, who was right at 20 minutes for Section action at Mt. SAC last November, and had a 2:25 800 last spring in the Soph Girls race. Priscilla Llanos (Rowland) was fifth in the Frosh race at the Bosco Tech Invitational last weekend in the mid nineteens. An army of Frosh and Soph girls will join the rookie Frosh boys in other contests as novice racers get used to the sport. With about all the racing action done by 11:00 in the morning it should be a great day in the sport, with a predicted high later in the day of 84, mild, compared to where it has been in previous weeks. |
