On Saturday, Nov. 9, six members of Avalon High School’s varsity Cross-Country team competed in the 10K. The 6.2 mile course is over twice as long as their high school races and truly tested their endurance.
Coach Frannie Finley has worked very hard with our boys and girls teams to prepare them for each of our San Joaquin League’s courses and the CIF course at Mt. San Antonio College, but not for a 10k.
On Saturday, Nov. 9, six members of Avalon High School’s varsity Cross-Country team competed in the 10K. The 6.2 mile course is over twice as long as their high school races and truly tested their endurance.
Coach Frannie Finley has worked very hard with our boys and girls teams to prepare them for each of our San Joaquin League’s courses and the CIF course at Mt. San Antonio College, but not for a 10k.
Regardless, Sergio Vallejo (Sr.), Alex Pedroza (Jr.), Tommy Vega (Jr.), David Torres-Zeller (Fr.), Celeste Lichtenhan (Sr.), and Michaela Edwards (Jr.) were confident they would do well; after all, they have been developed into competitive runners who accept such challenges
At the starting line at 8:30 a.m., the runners naturally gravitated towards the front of the 161-runner pack. They looked around and saw some intimidating runners, some of which were also cross-country runners over town, but they did not let that phase them when the gun went off.
At the end of the race, Sergio finished 2nd overall and 1st in the 19-and-under age group with at time of 38:22, trailing the first placed seasoned runner by only 11 seconds.
Alex Pedroza was not far behind, finishing 4th overall and 3rd in the same age group with a time of 40:24. Tommy Vega finished 7th overall (42:54), just behind Luis Amezcua (41:26), another AHS senior. David Torres-Zeller, our boys team’s only freshman, finished 12th overall with an impressive time of 46:02.
The girls team captains Celeste Lichtenhan and Michaela Edwards finished 3rd female and 19th overall (50:28) and 4th female and 21st overall (50:35) respectively. Their times also placed them 1st and 2nd in the 19-and-under age group. None of this would have been possible without the sponsorship and efforts of Spectrum Sports, Jim Ziska and his staff, as well as Cal Parsons, The Seaport Village, Villa Portofino and Hermosa hotels.
League Finals
Avalon cross-country had another great season in league competition. The girls’ team, led by sophomore Jeniece Neville, earned their third consecutive league championship title at the San Joaquin League Finals race, and the boys’ team, led by senior Sergio Vallejo, finished 2nd place of the nine teams. Avalon had an impressive number of individuals earning all-league honors.
First team all-league honors is earned by finishing consistently in the top 7 in league races, and second team all-league is earned by finishing in the top 15 places. Four girls, Jeniece Neville, Michaela Edwards, Celeste Lichtenhan, and Elizabeth de la Rosa, and two boys, Sergio Vallejo and Alex Pedroza, achieved first-team all-league status. Second team all-league recognition was awarded to Christine Gomez, Lilliana Zendejaz, and David Torres-Zellar.
Both teams will compete at Mt. San Antonio College’s CIF-SS Prelims race Saturday, November 16th, with the hopes of making CIF-SS Finals the following week.
