On Saturday the 14th, the boys and girls cross country teams traveled to Riverside to compete on the Riverside City Cross Country course at CIF Prelims. The teams goals were to run well enough to qualify for CIF Finals a week later at Mt. San Antonio College.

The first race of the day for the Flashes, race #5 featured the boys team competing against 18 other Division 4 teams. These are the top teams in the Southern Section. To qualify for the Finals, Fillmore had to finish among the top 8 teams. The boys ran perhaps their best race of the season to finish in 8th place and qualify for CIF Finals. For the 8th time this season, the Flashes were led by senior Jose Rodriguez who finished in 34th place in a personal best of 16:26.3, he was followed by Michael Sanchez 38th in 16:38.6, Johnny Martinez 41st in 16:41.3, Adrian Orozco 54th in 16:56.2, Curtis Ponce 64th in 17:02.9, Johnathan Ordaz 75th in 17:22.5, and Christian Andrade 96th in 17:43.4. Johnathan Ordaz and Christian Andrade ran personal best times.

In the girls race, race #7, the girls competed against 21 teams. To advance to CIF Finals they had to finish among the top 8 teams. Helping the girls achieve this goal and advance to CIF Finals was the one two punch of Lupita Perez and Carissa Rodriguez. Lupita led the girls finishing in 6th place in a time of 18:15.2, and teammate Carissa finished right behind in 18:17. Freshman Andrea Marruffo continues to improve and impress, she finished in 29th place in fine time of 19:19.7. She was followed by Irma Torres 40th in 19:43.5, Kimberly Vazquez 57th in 20:15.8, Erika Ruiz 58th in 20:16 and Julissa Martinez 103rd in 21:29.6. Another highlight was that the top 6 girls ran a personal best season time.

The Fillmore boys and girls will next travel to Walnut, California and compete on the historic Mt. San Antonio College course. This meet will take place on Saturday the 21st, with our girls toeing the starting line at 8:05 and the boys following at 8:45. Both teams will need to finish among the top 7 teams in their respective race to qualify for State Finals in Fresno at Woodward Park on November 28th.