The first of three tri-valley league meets was held on Tuesday September 27th at Arroyo Verde Park in Ventura and the Boys took home dual 2nd place finishes as the girls sped to 3rd in varsity and 4th in junior varsity action. Both boys’ teams lost to Oak Park (ranked 8 in the state for Division 3) and the girls barely got passed by Oak Park and La Reina. Oaks Christian also slipped by the junior varsity girls. The other teams in the League are Nordhoff and Saint Bonaventure. As of Monday the 3rd there are now 3 teams in the league in the top ten for their division and 2 for the girls. Fillmore is the only school with teams in both genders. The Flashes are 10th for division 4 in southern section.

On to individual results! Juan Mariscal took the lead this week as he strained up the mountains to finish 4th overall in 17:46. 15 seconds later Anthony Rivas finished 12th overall in 18:01. Adrian Mejia was hot on his heels to finish 14th in 18:10 and Jordan Mendoza crossed the line a scant 17 seconds behind that to finish in 18:27 at 16th. Isaac Gomez rounded out the top five with an 18:41 finish at 18th. Rounding out the team and denying valuable points to Nordhoff’s 4th and 5th runner was Jose Almaguer and Alexander Gonzalez. Jose was 19th in 18:58 and Alexander was 20th in 18:49. The truly phenomenal aspect was the differential between the first Fillmore runner and the 7th. A scant 1:03 past between the time Juan crossed the line and the time Alexander finished. It was truly an impressive display of team running!

For the ladies Kiana Hope finished 4th with a time of 20:44. Laura Garnica powered through the hilly terrain to complete the course in 22:34 and finish 15th. Maria Villalobos traveled the beaten path with a surge at the end for a 23:22 to finish 18th. Lucia Diaz was 20th after taking out her frustrations on the packed earth in an impressive 23:23. Jordyn Vassaur, with a grim look of determination and a no nonsense charge, took 22nd to complete the course in 23:48. Securing the 3rd place finish was Amanda Vassaur with a 32nd place finish at 25:04.
In junior varsity results Amber Wilmot placed 21st to get a photo finish of 25:32. Finishing 39th, 40th and 41st were Carla Pizano was 39th with a time of 26:58; Sofia Gallardo was in at 26:59 and Deanna Lomeli completed the course in 27:02. In 51st was Dalila Ortiz at 28:24. Justine De La Rosa and Denise Hernandez completed the top 7 lady flashes for junior varsity. Justine was 62nd in 30:03 and Denise was 64th for a time of 30:10.
The junior varsity boys featured Hugo Valdovinos and Jaime Magdaleno in the top 5. Hugo was 2nd in 18:47 and Jaime was an impressive 4th in 18:59. Christian Rodriguez was 11th in 19:21. The fourth scorer was Justin Beach in 19:55 to finish 13th. Jovani Oregon was 16th to run through the chute in 20:06. Frank Chavez achieved a 21st place finish of 20:16. Eddie Baez completed the course in 20:31 for a 27th place finish and locked down the2nd place team effort.

This is a terrific league start for the Flashes.