Irma Torres

Christian Andrade

On Thursday, the boys and girls cross-country teams competed on the Lake Casitas Course in Ojai in the third league meeting of this season. This final meeting determined league standings for the 2015 seasons and which Varsity teams would earn the privilege of representing the Tri-Valley League Schools at CIF Prelims on November 14th.

The first race of the day was the boys JV. First place team in this race was the Foothill Technology Dragons with Fillmore capturing second place. Leading the Flashes was John Chavez finishing in 14th place in a time of 18:38.53, followed by Nick Villela 16th in 18:45.98, Everardo Garcia Magana 19th in 19:04.18, Sergio Perez 26th in 19:23.25, Gustavo Valdez 28th in 19:26.42, Mario Hurtado 35th in 19:53.52, Steven Valencia 42nd in 20:10.31, Roberto Magana 44th in 20:15.14, Jaime Malagon 45th in 20:15.23, Josue Baez 54th in 20:34.73, Jorge Acevedo 61st in 20:46.53 , Dean Lomeli 62nd in 20:58.24, Louie Rodriguez 81st in 21:45.36, Eric Hernandez 86th in 22:23.35, Andrew Hernandez 91st in 22:33.13, Antonio Villalobos 96th in 23:33.64, Misael Ponce 100th in 24:02.50, Daniel Cruz 101st in 24:04.10, Luis Leon 104th in 24:42.75, and Allen Inda 110th in 27:11.94.

The most competitive race of the day featured Fillmore varsity girls versus Foothill Technology girls. Both these teams are currently ranked among the top teams in Southern Section CIF with Foothill holding the 7th spot and Fillmore ranked 12th.

Even though the Flashes had their best showing of the season against Foothill Technology, improving by more than 3 and a half minutes, they were unable to overcome the 1-4 placing of the Foothill dragons. Front runner for the Flashes was Carissa Rodriguez who finished in 3rd place in 18:45.47, a personal best on this course for her. With this performance, she earned a First Team All-League selection. She was followed by teammate Lupita Perez who finished in 4th in 19:02.97 also a personal best by 33 seconds, and a First Team All-League selection. The next finisher, another freshman, Andrea Marruffo finished in 14th place in 20:38.99, a 35 second improvement. Andrea was also a Second Team All-League selection. Kimberly Vasquez finished in 18th in 20:57.60, a 46.60 second improvement and was an All League Honorable selection. Next in the queue was Irma Torres 19th in 20:58.61, a 23 second improvement, she was also awarded Honorable Mention by the league coaches. Erika Ruiz followed in 22nd in 21:05.85, a 47 second improvement, and Jackie Chavez 28th in 21:33.11, a 37 second improvement.

The boys varsity race also proved to be an excellent outing for the Flashes with most of them improving their times. Once again they finished second to an excellent Foothill Technology team.

Leading the Fillmore Charge was Senior Jose Rodriguez who finished in tenth place and earned Second Team All-League Honors in 17:02.95, sophomore Michael Sanchez finished in 14th place in 17:26.16 and also earned Second Team All-League Honors, Adrian Orozco finished in 17th in 17:31.36, Jonathan Ordaz 21st in 17:48.54, Johnny Martinez 23rd in 17:53.91, Curtis Ponce 33rd in 18:09.29, and Christian Andrade 35th in 18:23.55. Johnathan Ordaz and Adrian Orozco both received Honorable Mention.

In the girls JV race Fillmore finished second. They were led by freshman Julissa Martinez who ran an excellent 21:09.55 to finish in 3rd place. Susie Garcia also ran well and finished in 12th place in a time of 22:29.29, followed by Cecilia Cisneros 19th in 22:46.81, Lauren Magdaleno 20th in 22:54.74, Emma Orozco 21st in 23:05.45, Maria Ruvalcaba 23rd in 23:13.03, Briana Lopez 29th in 24:02.63, Marisol Martinez 36th in 24:45.11, and Yakeline Magana 45th in 25:42.94.

Next Saturday the boys and girls varsity teams will travel to Riverside to compete on the Riverside City Cross Country Course. They will compete against other top Division 4 teams in the Southern Section with the goal of advancing to CIF Finals on November 21st. In order to advance to the Finals the Flashes must finish among the top 16 teams or as individuals they must finish among the top 6 individuals in their heat. It should be an exciting meet, join us to cheer on you CIF team representatives. We are proud of our young men and women.