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Flashes Fire at Fresno
 (l-r) Coach Tafoya, Frank Chavez, Hugo Valdovinos, Anthony Rivas, Adrian Mejia, Isaac Gomez, Justin Beach, Jose Almaguer, Alexander Frias, Nicolas Frias and Coach Rodriguez. By Anonymous — Wednesday, November 28th, 2012
Fillmore Wins State Cross Country Title
It was Black Friday. The nine boys gathered mid morning, ignoring the vacuous pull of season sales, intent and focused on one goal. In 24 hours they would be racing for a State Title, a feat that hadn’t been accomplished in 22 years. Jose Almaguer, Justin Beach, Frank Chavez, Alexander Frias, Nicolas Frias, Isaac Gomez, Adrian Mejia, Anthony Rivas, and Hugo Valdovinos loaded into the van and drove off towards Fresno. The next day would show how the last 5 months and indeed the last several years had paid off. Six days a week of practice, intense mental preparation and careful nutrition would lead them to their collective goal. Through their hard work and the diligent efforts of, the boys achieved their ambitions and dreams. For the first time in 22 years and the second time ever, the Fillmore High School boys have won a Division 4 State Cross Country title. Hugo Valdovinos led the way to finish 9th in 5 kilometer race at Woodward Park in Fresno. He recorded a 41 second improvement on the same course from earlier this year. His time was 16:03. Anthony Rivas was 14th at 16:20, a 30 second improvement. Alexander Frias finished 17th overall with a 16:25. Jose Almaguer crossed the line at 16:49 to finish 40th, a 9 second improvement. The 5th place scorer for Fillmore and 41st overall was Adrian Mejia; he completed the course in 16:49. Next year’s core veterans finished 58th and 86th respectively as Nicolas Frias and Frank Chavez both ran personal bests for the course. Nicolas finished in 17:06 a 12 second improvement. Frank clocked a 17:28, an 8 second improvement. Both Justin Beach and Isaac Gomez were also integral members of the team throughout the year and also on Saturday where they were prepared and willing to step in if needed. Both boys played a key role in the mental preparedness of the entire team’s effort to succeed. Many of you wonder what the team’s next journey would be. Are they going to Disneyland perhaps? No the next journey was much truer to form for high school boys. They went to Home Town Buffet and gorged themselves like they were unable to for the previous several months. Of special joy was having a soda for the first time in several months or years. Congratulations to the boys for their enormous accomplishment! 1. 121 Fillmore ( 16:30 1:22:26 0:46) |
