Melissa Nunez
Melissa Nunez is the JV Girl athlete of the week because of her constant improvement. Melissa has shown a great effort during workouts and meets. She is a positive athlete, and a very hardworking runner. Melissa is a first year runner and a Junior at FHS. Way to go Melissa!

Justin Beach
Justin Beach is the JV Boy athlete of the week. He has placed second for the Fillmore High School Boys’ team for the past two races. At the last race, the Dos Pueblos Invitational he was in the top 20 of which earned him a medal. Justin is a Junior and a three year runner. He is a dedicated and hardworking athlete. Awesome work Justin!

Laura Garnica
The FHS Athlete of the week is Laura Garnica. She has been through a rough first couple of weeks, but now is back on track. Laura ran a season best of 20:38. It was only her third race of the season due to injury. Laura is the only four year runner on the Varsity Team. She has been a varsity runner since her freshmen year. Laura is also the captain for the 2012 season. It is exciting to see what she will do during her last few months running for Fillmore High School. Keep it up Laura!

Jose Almaguer
The FHS Athlete of the week is Jose Almaguer. Jose Almaguer is the athlete of the week because of his great showing at Stanford Invitational and the workouts to the week prior. Jose had been fighting sickness and slight injury coming into the season. He is now back and ready to get his senior year rolling. He was the number one finisher at Stanford clocking at a 16:28 for the 5k and finishing 11th out of 235 athletes. We are all looking forward to what is next for Jose! Great work Jose!

With visions of large trees in their minds the boys’ varsity team traveled north to Palo Alto over the weekend with plans on competing in the prestigious Stanford Invitational. Promises were made to go to Ghirardelli square if they ran well or Alcatraz if they did not. The team took to the 5k college course and left it all on the field. They placed 1st in Division 4 and 5th overall against California schools. Once again tight group running allowed them to surge to the forefront. Jose Almaguer, the varsity runner of the meet, led the pack this time around with his finish of 16:28. This was fast enough for eleventh place. Alexander Frias, Hugo Valdovinos and Anthony Rivas were next, finishing 15th, 18th and 19th respectively. Isaac Gomez was the final scorer for the team at 22nd place and Adrian Mejia and Nicolas Frias held off the competition and kept the other teams at bay. This was truly an impressive feat for the team, the likes of which has not been seen in 10 years.

11 Jose Almaguer 16:28
15 Alexander Frias 16:29
18 Hugo Valdovinos 16:31
19 Anthony Rivas 16:32
22 Isaac Gomez 16:37
28 Adrian Mejia 16:41
59 Nicolas Frias 17:12

Surfs Up for the Flashes at the Dos Pueblos Invite
The thundering crash of the surf and the howling wail of the wind didn’t deter the team from an impressive showing at Shoreline Park and Lead Better Beach on Friday. The three mile race included one hill of note and was a relatively fast course. The competition was run by class.

Stand performers on CONTINUED »

Elections are currently being held for the upcoming 2012-2013 year. All positions are open and anyone interested in participating is welcome to run for office. The meeting will be held on Thursday October 25, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at Faith Community Church corner of Central Ave and 1st St in the social hall.

In an amazing day of intense cross country action the fan favorite team of Fillmore managed to play off their incredible abilities to power through the line and place high in the results for all divisions.

The boys’ varsity in a spectacular effort finished 3rd through 7th and 9th letting only two runners finish ahead of them and only one runner to break up the group. They once again had tight grouping and managed to finish within 5 seconds of each other to earn the first place slot in the meet. This week’s runner of the meet for the boys’ varsity Adrian Mejia led the effort with a 17:04.6. Over the next 5.08 seconds the remaining boys Isaac Gomez, Hugo Valdovinos, Anthony Rivas and Jose Almaguer would cross the line. Nico Frias in an impressive effort finished in 17:27.48. The boys’ have now gotten an early lead with their first place team victory.

The girls’ varsity was led by the charge of this week’s runner of the week Alexis Tafoya. The girls managed to hang on for a respectable 1:35 difference between scorers. Despite being banged up a bit with some injuries the girls surged for a fourth place overall finish.

The girls’ junior varsity also had a great race, finishing 3rd overall with Briana Segoviano and Amber Wilmot leading the charge finishing within seconds of each other and anchoring a 1:48 spilt difference between the first 5 scorers. Amber had such a superb performance that she earned runner of the week for the JV girls.

The junior varsity boys rounded out the day finishing 2nd overall with all 5 scorers in the top ten and all 7 placers in the top 20. Thirty four seconds separated the first place finisher Frank Chavez from 10th place finisher Sammy Martinez. Javier Rodriguez was the stand out performer of the day earning a coveted week in the spotlight with his JV boy runner of the week accomplishment.

Up next the boys’ varsity team will head to the Stanford Invitational on Saturday while the rest of the team will travel to the Dos Pueblos Invitational in Santa Barbara on Friday.

Full results:

Boys Varsity
3 Adrian Mejia SR 17:04.06
4 Isaac Gomez SR 17:04.07
5 Hugo Valdovinos SR 17:06.11 CONTINUED »

J.V. Flashes defeat Desert H.S. 48,6
Fillmore hit the road as they traveled out to Edwards Air Force base for their contest vs. the home team of Desert High school. The Flashes were led by Joseph Magana who scored 3 touchdowns that day, Also scoring for the Flashes was Michael Luna, Dominick Gonzalez, Jorge Andrade who had 2 touchdowns one on defense. The defense played a solid game led by Daniel Flores, Michael Castro, and Rafael Hernandez. The Flashes travel to Carpenteria next week.

Alexis Tafoya
The FHS Varsity Girl XC athlete of the week is Alexis Tafoya. Alexis has shown much improvement from the 2011 season to now. She has become a key scorer for the Lady Flashes. She was second to cross the line at Seaside Invitational, and led the Flashes to a 4th place finish at Tri Valley league number one with a 5k time of 21:31. Alexis Tafoya is a sophomore. There is more success to come! Keep it up Alexis!

Adrian Mejia
The FHS Varsity Boys XC athlete of the week is Adrian Mejia. Adrian Mejia has come a long way since his freshman varsity year. Adrian was an instant impact to the Fillmore Cross Country program as a freshman boy. Flash forward three years later and he is still leading the races, Adrian was the top finisher in an amazing group effort at League Meet 1. Adrian is a 4 year varsity and CIF runner. Amazing work Adrian!

Amber Wilmot
The FHS JV Girls’ XC athlete of the week is Amber Wilmot. Amber Wilmot has been leading the JV flashes for the past couple weeks. She has shown experience and leadership. She went out like a veteran and led for most of the race. She has had a consistent cross country career. She is a senior and a three year runner. Way to go Amber!

Javier Rodriguez
Javier Rodriguez is the JV Boys’ XC athlete of the week because of his great racing in the first of 3 TVL meets. He was the sixth scorer for the flashes and ran a time of 18:48 for the flat and fast 5k race. His three mile time was roughly around 18:00. Javier is also part of the 4x400 team during track season. He is a 4 year veteran. Great work Javier!

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Following his 2nd place finish in Calgary Canada two weeks ago, Christian Conaway flew to Eastern Canada to compete in the Prince Edward County Gravity Fest, which was held in Picton Canada on Sept 15 & 16. PEC was the 6th race in the IGSA NorAM Series. The race was promoted by Classic Luge Canadian Champion Kolby Parks. Parks and his entire family organized a wonderful race which was held in the middle of town. According to Conaway, “it seemed like the entire town came out to help set up the race course, move hay bales and help run the event”. It was great to see so many people watching and encouraging the racers on both days”.

Conaway broke the track record by over 4 seconds with his qualifying time of 1:23.548 besting Louis Bouchard’s 2011 record by over 4 seconds.

On race day most of the racers participated in a Flag Run, with each rider displaying their native flag.

“Part of the course was recently repaved which resulted in faster speeds over last year due to the smooth grippy road surface” said Christian.

On this course the start was critical due to a long flat roll-in prior to the first steep drop on the road. Conaway used his ability to gain advantage at the top of the run. Nick Kinnish said, “The man has the most insane push, he was miles in front of the pack”. Conaway advanced through the race heats to the Street Luge Finals. When asked how the race went he said “The race was fun, my runs felt smooth and clean from the beginning to the finish line”.

Christian will next complete in the IGSA NorAm Championship in San Dimas California on October 6 & 7. Last year Conaway won the event and claimed the title of US National Champion. He is also working to earn the IGSA North American Street Luge National Championship which will be award based on the top 5 finishes in the NorAm series. After the NorAm Championship Christian will take a two year leave from racing to serve an LDS Mission in Bogota Columbia beginning in November.

Irma Torres placed 7th in her race with a time of 18:57 becoming Fillmore High School's fastest freshman on the Seaside Invitational course.

(l-r) Kimberly Vasquez and Briana Segoviano.
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In an amazing season opener at the Ventura State Beach on Friday the Cross Country team powered their way over the 3 mile course to earn high accolades. Several freshmen had break out first races while the old grizzled veterans strutted their stuff and bettered themselves on the blistering course to earn personal records (PR), medals, and placings.

Freshman Irma Torres started the day off right with her impressive 7th place finish to earn her the first medal of the day. There were 271 freshman athletes in the women’s race. In the women’s sophomore race Sofia Gallardo and Alexis Tafoya both set personal bests with a 1:15 second improvement from last year for Sofia and a 1:56 reduction for Alexis. In addition to the biggest female improvement on the day, Alexis also snagged some hardware in the form of a medal with her 28th place finish. There were 279 sophomores in the women’s race. In the women’s junior race Jordyn Vassaur ran a 53 second improvement narrowly missing a medal with her 52nd place finish. There were 236 junior women in the race. The top five women ran a respectable team time of 1:02:35.
On the men’s side of the gender divide, sophomore Isai “EZ” Bolanos had a breakout race with a 4:14 improvement from last year. He must have eaten his Wheaties. Also making an impression for the sophomore men was Jorge Hurtado. Jorge placed 49th out of 364 to earn a medal. Juniors Mario Gaspar and Nico Frias also hit big PR’s with Mario obtaining a 2:58 second bettering and Nico hitting a 2:28 improvement. Nico also finished 28th out of 320 to earn the right to a medal around his neck as well.

But it was the men’s seniors who distinguished themselves at the Seaside Invitational. They took 2nd place overall as a senior group out of 30 senior teams and 6th best overall as a team. The veteran and vastly experienced varsity team had all 5 scorers under 15:34 and a 5 man time spread of 6.79 seconds, virtually unheard of in a cross country race. 6 of the boys earned medals. Isaac Gomez was 19th. Hugo Valdovinos was 20th while Adrian Mejia was 21st. Alexander Frias was 25th and Anthony Rivas was 29th. Jose Almaguer placed 39th. Their combined efforts resulted in a 4:56 team time improvement over last year to finish in a combined 77:29. This places the team as tied for 14th on the all-time best boys list for the meet. In addition for the 2nd week in a row the boys are ranked #1 in CIF Division 4 Southern Section.

Varsity Flashes defeat Boscoe Tech 49, 6. According to Coach Matt Dollar, “It was a great team effort, the offensive line did a great job, our backups that got in the game played very well.” Collin Farrar had 23 carries for 192 yards, Andrey Sanchez had 15 carries for 125 yards and an interception, Carson McLain was 3 for 3 for 60 yards and one touchdown, Tyler Esquivel had a 25 yard touchdown reception, and an interception, Jeremy Martinez and Joseph De La Mora played tough defense. Fillmore vs. Santa Paula this Friday at home! JV 4:30 p.m. & Varsity 7:30 p.m.

JV Flashes defeat Bosco Tech 35, 0. Fillmore Flashes JV Held the Bosco Tech Scoreless for their second shutout in as many games. They held the Tigers to no 1st downs and negative yards from scrimmage for the entire game. The defense was led by Daniel Flores, Michael Castro, Chad Petouglu, Rafael Hernandez, and Carlos Briceno. On Offense the Flashes had touchdowns by Hayden Wright, Joseph Magana, Damien Gonzalez, Bryce Farrar, and Jorge Andrade.

Friday, September 14th will mark the 102nd meeting between both schools which will be hosted by Fillmore. In acticipating a large number in attendance, both schools will be selling “Pre-Sale” tickets from their Student Stores until 12PM (Noon) on Friday. Stadium Way and 2nd Street, near the stadium will be “closed” to traffic. Fillmore High School stadium parking will only be available for handicap guests (that display placards) and guests that have purchase VIP Parking ($10.00) through FHS. Additional parking will be available at Fillmore Middle School as well as Fillmore High School and all surrounding side streets. For questions or any additional information, please feel free to contact the Fillmore High School Athletic Department at (805) 524-8491.