The Otay Ranch Mustangs cross country team finished second in both the girls and boys Mesa League standings in 2013. Veteran head coach Ian Cumming could have league champions in the making this season.
“Both our girls and boys are going to be a good team,” he said in previewing the 2014 season. “Once again, we graduated many talented and very competitive runners, but we have a nice mix of upper class people and younger people, who improved greatly during track season, who will help us to become very good by the end of the season.”
Cumming said he is personally “very excited” about working with this year’s Mustang team.
“We have a lot of unselfish team members, who care about team first and personal goals second,” he said. “It is going to be an exciting season.”
One might even place an exclamation mark on that statement.
Busting loose
Top returners for Otay Ranch include seniors Darla Osuna and Alicia Huerta and sophomore Eyra Alfaro.
Both Osuna and Alfaro posted all-league top 10 finishes at last year’s Mesa League finals. Osuna was second while Alfaro was 10th.
Osuna went on to place eighth at the San Diego Section Division I championship meet to earn her second qualifying trip to the state championship meet in Fresno.
Cumming called Huerta (14th at last year’s league finals) “probably our most improved runner over the course of last school year.”
The ORHS coach said it was too early to single out the team’s impact newcomers, but did say, “we have several new boys and girls who will help us this season.”
Red Devil harriers in rebuilding mode
The Sweetwater Red Devils boys cross country team will hit the course this fall with a decidedly new look after graduating five of the team’s top seven runners last season. But that hasn’t dimmed the team’s enthusiasm or its optimism to repeat as South Bay League champions.
“There are challenges but nothing, I think, that would prevent us from winning it again if we put in a lot of hard work,” SuHi coach Adrian Garcia said.
Practices for fall sports began Aug. 11, and Sweetwater’s first competition of the 2014 season is Sept. 12 at the Mustang Invitational at Rohr Park.
That will give Garcia’s troops a month to prepare for the upcoming season.
“Right now, we’re trying to build up our fitness, pounding out the miles, bringing up the tempo,” said Garcia, whose 2013 team recorded a rarity by placing all seven of its varsity runners among the top 10 finishers in the South Bay League championship race. “It’s a foundation on which to build up a base to harder workouts over the next few weeks.”
The Devils topped the South Bay League field at last year’s league finals with a meet-low 19 points as senior Gerardo Marquillo won the individual league title by a whopping margin of 25 seconds over classmate Bryan Alvarado.
Of the Devils’ top seven finishers at the league finals last season, five were seniors. Carlos Aviles-Sullivan was third at last year’s league finals as a sophomore while Raphael Grajeda was ninth as a junior.
At the ensuing San Diego Section championships, Sweetwater placed sixth in the Division I team standings, led by Alvarado with an 11th-place individual finish.
Garcia is hesitant to address a league preview at this point of the season because of coaching changes throughout the league. But he did address his own team’s situation.
“Our team is in a rebuilding year,” he flatly stated. “We graduated our top senior runners. A lot of our JV runners last year will be on the varsity this year. We’re going to have to work hard to repeat.”
The SuHi girls team, which will be coached this season by former Devil standout Maila Lucht, fresh out of Minot State, placed runner-up to Chula Vista by one point at last season’s league finals.
2014 Prep Cross Country Schedule
August
29: West Hills Wolf Pack Invitational
30: Asics Cougar Classic 6-mile relay (Cal State San Marcos)
30: Vaquero Stampede (Lindo Lake)
September
12: Mustang Invitational at Rohr Park
13: Bronco Invitational at Kit Carson Park
20: Sundevil Invitational at Morley Field
26: South Bay Invitational at Rohr Park
27: Dana Hills Invitational
October
4: Saints Small School Invitational
18: Southern California Invitational
24: Kit Carson Jaguar Invitational
24-25: Mt. SAC Invitational
November
14: Metro Conference finals at Rohr Park
