Nicole Gonzalez races into a third place finish at the Citrus Coast League Finals.

On Wednesday, the Fillmore Cross Country teams competed on the challenging Lake Casitas Cross Country Course for the honor of being crowned League Champions. The Varsity teams were also competing to earn a birth onto the CIF Prelim Meet on November 10th in Riverside as Citrus Coast Representatives. Four divisions were contested starting with the Boys Junior Varsity, followed by the Girls Varsity, the Boys Varsity, and the Girls Junior Varsity.

The Junior Varsity team set the tone for the day by running to a perfect score of 15 points and winning the League Team Championship. They captured the first five places, a perfect score, and were paced by Alex Recancoj who led from wire to wire and captured the individual title of League Champion in a time of 18:02.8. He was followed by Juan Carlos Laureano 2nd in 18:04.1, Matthew Munoz 3rd in 18:04.2, Camilo Torres 4th in 18:15.5, Jesus Cadena 5th in 18:28.4, Jorge Acevedo 9th in 19:23.6, Andrew Otineru 16th in 19:58.7, Andres Gonzalez 20th in 20:20.4, Daniel Cruz 29th in 21:18.4, Luis Leon 30th in 21:20.8, James Flores 34th in 21:33.4, Eneyin Ortega 46th in 22:36, Anthony Estrella 56th in 24:44.9, and Anthony Gonzalez 57th in 24:48.6.

The Varsity Girls also captured the League Team Championship by placing 5 girls in the top 8. They were led by Carissa Rodriguez who was the Individual League Champion and was also awarded MVP for the season of the Citrus Coast League. Her time was 19:25.3. She was followed by Nicole Gonzalez who ran her best race against Coastal League competition this season and placed 3rd in 20:24.7. Also placing well was Diana Perez 4th in 20:26.8, Andrea Marruffo 7th in 21:15.8, Vanessa Avila 8th in 21:18.6 and Cecilia Cisneros 27th in 24:10.3. This is the first League Championship for a Fillmore Varsity Girls Cross Country team since 1991, a span of 27 years.

The Boys Varsity Athletes had perhaps the toughest race of the day battling two excellent teams, Santa Paula High School and Hueneme High School. Both of these teams had defeated Fillmore in prior competition. The winners of this race would earn the title of Coastal League Champions, and it proved to be a tight race that was decided by a mere 4 points. Fillmore eked out the victory by running a tight group of scorers who were separated by only 28.6 seconds. They were led by senior Nick Villela who finished in 4th place in a time of 16:51. He was followed by Fabian Del Villar 7th in 17:00.5, Rey Laureano 9th in 17:11.3, Jesse Martinez 10th in 17:12.6, Erick Gutierrez 12th in 17:19.6, Alex Manzo 23rd in 18:07.6 and David Flores 30th in 18:42.2. The League Title was a first for the boys varsity team who last won the TriValley League title in 2002.

The Final Race of the day also featured some fine front running by the Junior Varsity Girls. Isabela De La Cruz finished in the runner up position posting a time of 23:41.8, Angelica Herrera finished in 7th in 24:35.6, followed by Emma Orozco 8th in 24:47.8, Jasmine Vega 23rd in 26:38.7, Ebony Venegas 26th in 26:49, Emma Ortiz 34th in 27:51.9, Isabel De La Cruz 45th in 30:08.7, and Daisy Guerrero 54th in 33:02.3. In the team standings Fillmore Junior Varsity Girls finished in third place.

This concludes the regular season for the lower division Cross Country teams who had an excellent run this year with the Junior Varsity Boys capturing first place and the Junior Varsity Girls finishing in third place. Both Varsity Boys and Girls teams advanced to the Division 4 Southern Section CIF Prelims Meet on the Riverside Golf Course on November 10th. Here they will try to finish among the top teams and qualify to run in the Division 4 Southern Section CIF Finals on November 17th. Spectator gates will open at 6:45 A.M. with the first race for the Flashes, the Boys Varsity at 9:45 A.M. followed by Girls Varsity at 10:33 A.M.