Submitted by Coach Mark Blankenship

Fillmore High School Boys Varsity Basketball defeated Animo Bunche in the Northeast Valley Tournament last night 58-34. Fillmore led the whole way in this contest. The boy’s played hard, executed both offense and defense as well as running their full court pressure.

Leading for Fillmore were:
Julian Lizarraga, 13 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals; Jake Saviers, 13 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks and 3 steals; Roy Esquivel, 10 points, 6 rebounds, 1 block, 4 steals and 5 assists; Jaysson Carrillo, 6 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal; Davis Flores, 6 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals; Junior Maldonado, 3 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, 3 steals; Andres Maldonado, 2 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal; Johhny Soto, 2 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 assist; Ryan Gonzales, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 assists.

The Varsity boys are now 1-1 on the season. The Boys will continue to play in the Northeast Valley Tournament this week, Nov. 27, 29, 30 and Dec 1 at various locations.

On Saturday the Varsity boys and girls Cross Country teams traveled to Riverside to compete in the CIF Southern Section Division 4 Finals. Both teams competed against 24 other teams that advanced from last week’s Prelims as the best teams in the Southern Section Division. Only the top 7 teams in each race would earn the right to advance to the California State Finals in Fresno, California on November 24th. Individuals would also try to earn a chance to compete at State Finals.

The girls were led by Carissa Rodriguez, the top runner for the Flashes over the last 4 years. Carissa finished in 16th place in a time of 18:28.4, as an individual on a non-qualifying team, she finished 1 place out of qualifying as an individual. She was followed by Diana Perez 26th in 18:45.42, Nicole Gonzalez 72nd in 19:37.36, Vanessa Avila 98th in 20:15.59, Andrea Marruffo 104th in 20:17.61, Isabela De La Cruz 137th in 21:17.91 and Angelica Herrera 161st in 22:23.81. In the team competition, Fillmore Varsity Girls finished in 11th place.

The boys were led by Fabian Del Villar. Fabi ran his best time on this course and his best time to date. He finished in 21st in a time of 15:41.51 improving on his time from last year by 1 minute and 26 seconds. He was followed by Nick Villela 49th in 16:17.04, Rey Laureano 59th in 16:26.75, Alex Manzo 70th in 16:34.76, Erick Gutierrez 74th in 16:36.37, Jesse Martinez 97th in 16:53.09, and Camilo Torres 106th in 17:00.61. As a team, the Boys Varsity finished in tenth place narrowly missing the State Meet by 3 positions.

This terminates a great season where Fillmore teams captured League titles in the Varsity Boys, Varsity Girls, and the Junior Varsity Boys. The Varsity teams were both able to advance to the CIF Southern Section Division 4 Finals and narrowly missed qualifying for the State Meet. Way to run Flashes, you make us proud.

Senior Diana Perez at the Division IV CIF Prelims.
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On Saturday both Boys and Girls Varsity Cross Country teams competed in the 2018 Division 4 Southern Section Cross Country Prelims. The meet was held on the 3.0 mile relatively flat course on the Riverside Golf Course. This highly competitive meet, pitted the top teams in Division 4 Southern Section in a race that would determine who would compete in CIF Finals next Saturday and possibly advanced to the State Finals in Fresno.

The Varsity Boys were the first to toe the line along with 19 other top ranked teams. This race was the second of two heats in this division. Leading the pack this week was Fabian Del Villar who finished 9th in a personal best time of 15:49.6, he was followed by Nick Villela 23rd in 16:22.1, Rey Laureano 32nd in 16:31.5, Erick Gutierrez 34th in 16:33.5, Jesse Martinez 40th in 16:39.7, Alex Manzo 47th in 16:54, and Alex Recancoj 54th in 16:58.9. In the team competition, Fillmore finished in 5th place, there by stamping their ticket to the Division 4 Southern Section CIF Finals Meet next week.

The Varsity Girls had 22 teams in their race. They also ran in the second of two heats and were led by Senior Carissa Rodriguez who captured third place in 18:29.4 in this quality field of competitors. She was followed by Diana Perez 19th in 19:13.4, Nicole Gonzalez 38th in 19:57.6, Vanessa Avila 54th in 20:15.9, Andrea Marruffo 55th in 20:16.3, Isabela De La Cruz 105th in 22:11.2, and Cecilia Cisneros 124th in 23:07.6. In the team competition, the girls finished in fifth place and also advanced to the Division 4 Southern Section CIF Finals.

Next week, both varsity teams compete in the Division 4 Southern Section Finals also held on the same course in Riverside. The girls are scheduled to race at 9:25 a.m. followed by the boys at 10:35. The Fillmore athletes must finish among the top seven teams in their race in order to advance to Division 4 CIF Southern Section State Finals on November 24th. An athlete may also advance as an individual, if they finish among the top 20 in the race, but they also must be one of the top five individuals. This is the third year in a row that both varsity teams have qualified for the Finals.

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

Following are SoCal Fillmore Bears game results for Saturday, October 20th: SoCal Fillmore Bears Gremlins (away game) vs. North Oxnard Warriors, 636-6, Bears, Bears. SoCal Fillmore Bears Pee Wee (away game) vs. South Valley Raiders, 27-12, Bears. SoCal Fillmore Bears Bantams (away game) vs. Santa Barbara Sharks, 30-0, Bears. SoCal Fillmore Bears Juniors (away game) vs. Burbank Vikings, 12-0, Vikings. SoCal Fillmore Bears Seniors (away game) vs. South Valley Raiders, 42-6, Raiders.
This Saturday’s games will October 27th: SoCal Fillmore Bears Gremlins vs. Ventura Packers 8am at Fillmore High School. SoCal Fillmore Bears Pee Wee vs. Moorpark Musketeers 10:15am at Fillmore High School. SoCal Fillmore Bears Bantams vs. Calabasas Wolfpack 12:30pm at Fillmore High School. SoCal Fillmore Bears Juniors have a bye week. SoCal Fillmore Bears Seniors have a bye week.

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A note from Tennis Coach Lolita Wyche-Bowman:
We have now come to the end of the Fillmore high school girl’s tennis season. We have a season record of 0 wins and 18 losses. Yes, the Fillmore team is a humble team; matches are played against experienced tennis players. Even so, past experience of their opponents does not inhibit their ability to play their best on the courts; and that is something to be proud of. The girls have trained for the season running sprints and completing tennis drills such as down the line shots and overhead smashes. If you see them on the tennis courts, just ask them how many aces they have under their belts! Acing an opponent alone is a skill; and boy does it feel good when this happens...right girls!” Like I say every year to my team, “If you can learn how to play tennis, you can do just about anything down the road.” The tennis team is full of great students and it seems they play tennis for the challenge; acquiring good grades and becoming a good tennis player requires work and dedication. On another note, on October 18, Fillmore played against Hueneme high school; Jessica Flores and Melissa Higuera scoring two points for Fillmore. It was Fillmore versus Santa Paula on October 16 with a final core of Fillmore 5, Santa Paula 13. Doubles team Maria Gonzalez and Amairani Aragon scored two points; Jessica Flores scored one point, doubles team Briana Lopez and Karime Renteria scored one point, and doubles team Stephanie Garcia and Valerie Esparza scored one point for Fillmore. Thank you to the parents for supporting their daughters this year during the tennis season. Last, if you know a high school girl who is up for a challenge to learn a highly skilled sport, tell her to stop by the tennis courts to inquire about being on the team next season. Tell her she will learn how to hit overhead smashes, crosscourt forehands and aces! A special thanks to Michelle and Melissa’s mother for being supportive of the team this entire season! In special memory to my father, Charles Wyche former Fillmore high school tennis coach.

Following are the Fillmore Raiders game results for Saturday, October 13th: Raiders Mighty Mites Black (away game) vs. SC Grizzlies, 18-12, Raiders. Raiders Mighty Mites Silver (away game) vs. Mid-Valley, 20-0, Raiders. Raiders Bantams vs. Camarillo, 19-0, Camarillo. Raiders Sophomores vs. Santa Paula, 28-0, Santa Paula. Raiders Juniors vs. Crown Valley, 33-8, Raiders. Raiders Seniors vs. LA Ducks, 42-20, Ducks.

This week’s games will be October 20th: Raiders Might Mites Black vs. Ventura 9am at Ventura High School. Raiders Mighty Mites Silver vs. Oxnard 8am at Fillmore High School. Raiders Bantams vs. SF Rush 10am at Fillmore High School. Raiders Sophomores vs. Santa Paula 10am at Santa Paula High School. Raiders Juniors vs. Camarillo 12pm at Fillmore High School. Raiders Seniors vs. Santa Barbara 2pm at Fillmore High School.