(l-r) Fillmore High School’s Junior boys: back row: Anthony Rivas, Jose Almaguer, Isaac Gomez, and Adrian Mejia. Front row: Vincent Chavez and Sammy Martinez.

(l-r) FHS Junior girls: Amber Wilmot, Carla Pizzano, Amanda Vassaur, Dalia Ortiz and Laura Garnica.

The Fillmore Cross Country team crashed onto the beach at the 22nd annual Seaside Invitational in Ventura on Friday with a resounding boom. The Fillmore Flashes garnered 10 medals in the grade and gender divided races and the junior boys nabbed 5th in their race. The team showed that they are absolutely prepared for the 2011 Season.
For the girls, sophomore Kiana Hope continued to be a force to reckon with as she finished 7th in her race, earning a medal, setting a personal course record (PR) and staying the fastest Lady Flash to run at Seaside for 2011, this time as a sophomore. Her time was a blazing 18:55 for 3 miles, or roughly 6:18 per mile. A trio of juniors also ran the course ragged as Laura Garnica, Maria Villalobos and Lucia Diaz all set personal records for the course. Laura in 19:35, Maria in 20:56 and Lucia in 21:02. Laura and Maria earned medals and Laura and Lucia improved upon their previous time on the course. Dalia Ortiz set a new personal best on the course as well. A fierce rivalry was also ignited as the Vassaur sisters pitted themselves against the course where sophomore rookie and former cheerleader Jordyn Vassaur conquered the course in 21:18, good enough to earn her the 5th fastest slot for the Varsity girls from Fillmore. Not to be outdone by her little sister, Amanda Vassaur ran an amazing time of 22:33. The fastest freshman racer of the day for the girls was breakout freshman Alexis Tafoya's remarkable showing of 21:39 earning her both a medal and the 6th girls spot for the Fillmore Flashes Girls Varsity team.

The boys also came to race as senior Juan Mariscal earned both a medal and a personal record with a time 16:33. Jordan Mendoza powered in at 17:03. Robbie Munoz also had a significant personal record on the day, running in 19:21. The junior boys stole the spot light on the day, finishing 5th place as the only Division 4 team behind powerhouse programs in State Title contention. The squad was led by Jose Almaguer and Anthony Rivas mere seconds apart as Jose finished in 16:10 and Anthony finished in 16:12, both of them blew away their previous times on the course by over a minute. They became the two fastest boys to run at Seaside in any grade and both earned medals. Also in the junior boys’ race were Isaac Gomez and Adrian Mejia who finished as the 3rd and 4th fastest Fillmore juniors to run the course in for Fillmore. Isaac finished in 16:39 and Adrian passed the line at 16:52 to set a new PR. Vincent Chavez and Sammy Martinez also set junior course bests with Vincent at 17:52, and Sammy at 17:56. The boys’ sophomore sensation for the day was Justin Beach who raced his way to a medal and with a time of 17:42. Joey Orozco also had a standout day with a new personal record of 18:54, a close to one minute improvement. Two freshmen also had an amazing race day, Francisco Erazo ran a 19:16 and Jaime Vargas ran a 19:22.

Many other highs were to be found on the day and in the future this publication vows to print all the PR achievements when they happen! Our next meet will take place Saturday September 17th the team travels to Lake Casitas for the Ojai Invitational.