This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Broncos, Rams Advance to Cross Country CIF Prelims

If it's November, that means all of the high school Fall sports are finishing league competition and hoping to advance to the playoffs.

Cross country is no different than other sports in the excitement it creates at this time of year.  The crowds were large as they witnessed all six schools from the Southwestern League compete at league finals Thursday on the 2.95-mile course just east of Diamond Valley Lake.

The top three boys and girls varsity teams at the meet qualify for the California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section Prelims next Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. In addition, the top three individual runners not on a qualifying team also qualify for Prelims, provided they finish in the top six in their league finals meet.

Temperatures at the 2:20 p.m. start of the junior varsity girls race were in the low 80's and there was no noticeable wind to deal with. The Southwestern League is one of the most competitive in southern California and the runners gave it their best from the starting gun all the way to the finish.

Find out what's happening in Murrietawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Races alternated between the Mountain Pass League and the Southwestern League teams, with the order being junior varsity girls, junior varsity boys, varsity girls and varsity boys.

From appearances at different places on the course, the athletes were up to the challenge and ran with heart and will. For many of the seniors, Thursday's meet race marked their last high school cross country race.

Find out what's happening in Murrietawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

When all was said and done, the varsity squads from Great Oak both won first place with Vista Murrieta coming in second in each. In fact, both school's JV teams also finished in that order. The top five runners per school score points with the lowest tally garnering the win. Varsity teams run seven athletes. JV teams run as many as they wish.

Great Oak's girls are currently ranked second in the State at all division levels and ranked first in Division 1 according to DyeStatCAL.com. The Lady Broncos are ranked 24th in that State poll.

Great Oak's boys are currently ranked tenth in the all-divisions State poll and eighth in the Division 1 poll.

The teams meet together three times in the season at clustered league meets.  The league finals team finishing places count double in the standings so Thursday's meet had a lot riding on its outcome.

The standings after the first two meets had Great Oak and Vista Murrieta's boys and girls at 1 - 2. Chaparral boys and Murrieta Mesa's boys were tied for third so qualifying for Prelims was definitely on the line.Temecula Valley was alone in third place ahead of fourth-placers Chaparral and Murrieta Mesa going into this final league race.

In the varsity girls race, Great Oak's Destiny Collins lead at the start and held on for the win in an impressive 16:34.5 ahead of teammate Haley Dorris and Temecula Valley's Angela Ziff.

Vista Murrieta's Josie Guinn finished seventh to lead her team.  Murrieta Mesa's top runner was Taylor Taite who came in fourth.  Chaparral's fastest was Chandler Kerr who finished 11th. Nighthawk Ringnyuh Shey was Murrieta Valley's lead runner in 19th.

Taite is the lone girls athlete moving on to Prelims to join the Great Oak, Vista Murrieta, Temecula Valley teams.

In the varsity boys race, the Wolfpack's Nick Doan earned league champion honors with his 15:08.5 finish ahead of Vista Murrieta's Garrett Mullennix and Chaparral's Connor Thurmond.

Murrieta Mesa's Willie Raus finished first for the Rams in seventh place. Murrieta Valley's Ismail Herrera finished first for the Nighthawks in 14th place. Nick Leitgeb was the Bears' first runner in with a 29th place finish.

The Rams boys team advances with a two-point third-place edge over Chaparral.

In the JV girls race, the top 13 finishers were all from Great Oak High School. One Lady Bronco squeezed in the 14th position before four additional Wolfpack runners.

In the JV boys race, the top ten finishers were Wolfpack athletes followed by three Bronco athletes.

Team Places/Scores/Team Time/Average at League Finals:

Girls Varsity

1  Great Oak  23   1:26:46.80   17:21.36

2  Vista Murrieta  62   1:32:11.40   18:26.28

3  Temecula Valley  70   1:32:39.00   18:31.80

4  Murrieta Mesa  105   1:36:06.61   19:13.32

5  Chaparral  113   1:36:49.80   19:21.96

6  Murrieta Valley  155   1:40:48.60   20:09.72

Boys Varsity

1  Great Oak  29   1:17:12.50   15:26.50

2  Vista Murrieta  44   1:17:44.10   15:32.82

3  Murrieta Mesa  82   1:19:15.90   15:51.18

4  Chaparral  84   1:19:25.20   15:53.04

5  Murrieta Valley  142   1:23:09.80   16:37.96

6  Temecula Valley  171   1:25:45.50   17:09.10

Final League Standings:

Girls Varsity

1  Great Oak

2  Vista Murrieta

3  Temecula Valley

4  Murrieta Mesa

5  Chaparral

6  Murrieta Valley

Boys Varsity

1  Great Oak

2  Vista Murrieta

3  Murrieta Mesa

4  Chaparral

5  Murrieta Valley

6  Temecula Valley

League Finals:

Girls Varsity (Place, Grade, School, Time)

(Top 10)

1  Destiny Collins, 10, Great Oak, 16:34.5

2  Haley Dorris, 12, Great Oak, 16:44.1

3  Angela Ziff, 12, Temecula Valley, 17:30.8

4  Taylor Taite, 11, Murrieta Mesa, 17:41.4

5  Ashley Helbig, 12, Great Oak, 17:43.5

6  Desiree Stinger, 10, Great Oak, 17:47.2

7  Josie Guinn, 9, Vista Murrieta, 17:51.9

8  Michaela Reynolds, 10, Vista Murrieta, 17:53.0

9  Kiyena Beatty, 9, Great Oak, 17:57.5

10  Olivia Rivera, 11, Temecula Valley, 18:11.0

Others finishing first for their school included:

11  Chandler Kerr, 11, Chaparral, 18:27.1

19  Ringnyuh Shey, 12, Murrieta Valley, 18:48.4 

Boys Varsity (Place, Grade, School, Time)

(Top 10)

1  Nick Doan, 11, Great Oak, 15:08.5

2  Garrett Mullennix, 12, Vista Murrieta, 15:17.0

3  Connor Thurmond, 12, Chaparral, 15:22.0

4  Anthony Arvizu, 11, Great Oak, 15:25.4

5  Maurillio Sanchez, 12, Vista Murrieta, 15:29.6

6  Robbie Gleeson, 10, Great Oak, 15:30.0

7  Willie Raus, 12, Murrieta Mesa, 15:3  0.2

8  Patryk Giba, 12, Great Oak, 15:32.9

9  Eric Nunez, 10, Vista Murrieta, 15:33.8

10  Cole Spencer, 10, Great Oak, 15:35.7

Others finishing first for their school included:

14  Ismail Herrera, 12, Murrieta Valley, 15:39.4

29  Nick Leitgeb, 12, Temecula Valley, 16:34.4

Girls Junior Varsity (Place, Grade, School, Time)

(Top 10)

1  Evelyn Mandel, 9, Great Oak, 18:10.8

2  Macey Pflughoft, 11, Great Oak, 18:32.0

3  Taylor Walker, 10, Great Oak, 18:37.2

4  Kelly Thomas, 11, Great Oak, 18:42.7

5  Miranda Padilla, 11, Great Oak, 18:46.1

6  Michelle McIntosh,  9, Great Oak, 18:47.6

7  Alyssa Ungrady, 10, Great Oak, 18:53.6

8  Alexis Calain, 9, Great Oak, 18:56.1

9  Ally Talpash, 9, Great Oak, 19:05.3

10  Sydney Belus, 9, Great Oak, 19:11.0

Others finishing first for their school included:

14  Elise Benner, 10, Vista Murrieta, 19:32.2

26  Kelsey Gonzales, 9, Chaparral, 20:19.2

47  Janette Perez, 11, Murrieta Mesa, 21:25.3

51  Krissy Hilton, 10, Temecula Valley, 21:30.5

55  Loni Byers, 12, Murrieta Valley, 21:49.9

Boys Junior Varsity (Place, Grade, School, Time)

(Top 10)

1  Dillon Emery, 12, Great Oak, 15:42.1

2  Abner Salvador, 12, Great Oak, 15:48.4

3  Conor White, 10, Great Oak, 16:00.9

4  Jonathan Lucas, 12, Great Oak, 16:09.0

5  Jason Bowen, 11, Great Oak, 16:24.6

6  Solomon Fountain, 9, Great Oak, 16:27.6

7  Matt Tibbits, 10, Great Oak, 16:28.2

8  Mark Skeans, 12, Great Oak, 16:29.6

9  George Binni, 11, Great Oak, 16:35.7

10  Kody Dickerson, 12, Great Oak, 16:43.4

Others finishing first for their school included:

11  Tristin Maggio, 10, Vista Murrieta, 16:47.5

18  Michael Pfeil, 11, Murrieta Mesa, 16:59.9

24  Christian Collins, 10, Murrieta Valley, 17:06.4

43  Ivan Escobedo, 10, Temecula Valley, 17:34.0

48  Jakoby Simon, 9, Chaparral, 17:37.7

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?