Guess who's baaaaack?
A few familiar names play a big role as the Falcons
outperform a very good King squad to earn the crown!

Rubidoux's boys -- in the winner's circle yet again!

King's boys -- poised to make noise at CIF!

King's girls -- the REAL DEAL and a big D2 factor!

The league champions: Rubidoux's Rudy Palacios and King's Megan Fairley!

Here are the results from the Sunkist League Finals. This meet went according to expectations as the top 3 teams in both races finished in the same order for the 2 previous league meets, thus the top 3 will be the representatives to SS-CIF Prelims.

Boys Varsity
1) Rubidoux - 23
2) King - 32
3) Norte Vista - 90

1) Rudy Palacios (Rub) 16:07
2) David Galante (King) 16:22
3) Baltazar Landa (Rub) 16:38
4) Efrain Guerrero (Rub) 16:40
5) Adam Schwartz (King) 16:41
6) Edwin Ortiz (Rub) 16:50
7) Kevin Marquardt (King) 16:51
8) Grant Carter (King) 17:01
9) Danny Perez (Rub) 17:09
10) John Ashley (King) 17:14

The boys Varsity race turned into a dual meet as King and Rubidoux divided up the top ten amongst themselves. Francisco Manzo had dominated the first 2 league meets but faded to 11th place today. King and Rubidoux both seem to be peaking nicely, as is expected with these two coaches. The course is an accurately measured very hilly 3.0 miles of mostly dirt. My best guess is that it is a little slower than Mt. SAC based on comparisons to the Rubidoux home course, which is at the same park. I think that it might be about 10-15 seconds slower than Mt. SAC but that is just a guess with not much factual data to back it up.

Photo courtesy of Brad Peters
Can you feel the power???
Megan Fairley (left) and Kristina Moore power up the hill, with electrical towers proving no match in the background!

Girls Varsity
1) King - 17
2) Norte Vista - 52
3) Rubidoux - 84

1) Megan Fairley (King) 19:25
2) Kristina Moore (K) 19:40
3) Morgan Sjorgen (K) 20:05
4) Yesenia Cortez (NV) 20:44
5) Carley Sjorgen (K) 20:47
6) Stephanie Fematt (K) 20:54
7) Monika Valenzuela (K) 21:01
8) Erin Fitzgerald (K) 21:11
9) Melissa Velasquez (NV) 21:21
10) Kristina Linn (NV) 21:21

The King Girls are good, really good. They came very close to sweeping the meet as only Yesenia Cortez of Norte Vista could break into their top 7. They also had 2 girls running JV that would have been 7th and 8th in the Varsity race. There was no drama at all in this contest as Megan Fairley and Kristina Moore took out the pace and never looked back. They ran together until the last half mile when Fairley took a commanding lead she would never relinquish. This team will definitely have an impact in Fresno come Turkey time.

The attached pictures are of the race winners (Megan Fairley and Rudy Palacios) and the top teams (King girls and Boys and Rubidoux Boys)

See you next weekend,
Keith Chann