There will be a lot going on at Friday’s Metro Conference cross country finals at Rohr Park, including the crowing of league individual and team champions and a close-up look at some of this year’s elite local runners.
Racing starts at 2 p.m. and will include competition in boys and girls varsity and junior varsity divisions for both the Mesa League and South Bay League teams.
Hilltop High School senior Jimmy Byland is hoping to cap a standout season with a return trip to the state championship meet while Eastlake High School’s juggernaut girls team is hoping to finally nail down a trip to Fresno as a unit.
If the latter bid fails at the upcoming San Diego Section finals, the Lady Titans have a couple standouts who will vie to secure trips to the state meet as individual qualifiers.
Amanda Challburg qualified for the state meet as a freshman in 2019. She hopes to qualify again but she might do so behind sophomore teammate Vanessa Vuong, who has steadily moved up the field as Eastlake’s No. 1 runner in recent weeks.
It will be a friendly rivalry between Challburg and Vuong on Friday’s Rohr Park course.
Vuong finished 29 seconds ahead of Challburg in Eastlake’s 15-50 dual meet victory against Mater Dei Catholic Oct. 29 at Rohr Park. Vuong finished ahead of Challburg by 18 seconds last Friday at Hilltop, another 15-50 win for the Lady Titans.
Eastlake will be out to place all seven runners among the top 10 league finishers to flex their dominance on the course. It’s likely to happen. Otay Ranch broke up the Lady Titans scoring parade in an Oct. 8 dual meet with two runners among the top nine finishers — freshman Aviva DeVore and senior Leila Fuerte.
Vuong won that race in 15:06.86 while DeVore was second in 15:21.87, Fuerte was third in 15:30.15 and Challburg was fourth in 15:34.70.
Following that lead, Eastlake senior Melissa Mekitarian was fifth in 15:41.01, junior Cameron Cruz was sixth in 15:54.54, sophomore Galia Salazar was seventh in 16:05.68, senior Katherine Robinson was eighth in 16:15.31 and freshman Akex Borba was ninth in 16:16.01.
Last Friday, the Lady Titans’ order of finish included Vuong (12:29), Challburg (12:47). Mekitarian (13:02), Salazar (13:04), senior Arianna Miessner (13:33), freshman Alexis Sepulveda (13:33) and Robinson (13:35). That’s seven runners in a row – count ’em again.
“It’s definitely crazy,” Vuong said of her move up to the front of Eastlake’s ferocious pack. “It’s overwhelming, but it’s exciting.”
As for Byland? He seems to have aced all his local competition after setting yet another school record on the Lancers’ home course last Friday with a time of 15:33 as Hilltop topped visiting Eastlake 23-32.
The dual meet appeared on paper to be a duel between Byland and EHS senior Anthony Martinez. The duo kept pace for about half of the 3.1-mile race before Byland broke free and ran alone for most of the rest of the high profile matchup.
Martinez rated to be Byland’s chief competition for this year’s Mesa League individual title, but the Hilltop runner bested the Titan standout by 59 seconds at the finish line.
Instead of besting Martinez, Byland actually out-dueled senior teammate Miguel Tisnado by 25 seconds for medalist honors.
The margin of victory was a jaw-dropper.
“My strategy was to take out the race and keep a fast pace,” Byland said. “At the hill, I started to separate from him (Martinez) on the downhill. That’s when I dropped him.
Byland has set some exciting goals to complete as his senior season plays out.
“I’m looking to be league champion, that’s my goal,” he said. “At CIF, I’m looking to be first place and for us to qualify as a team (for the state meet).”
Byland has let his feet do the talking thus far.
Martinez finished 56 seconds ahead of junior teammate Trevor Santiago at the Oct. 29 dual meet against the Crusaders. Eastlake’s No. 1 was impressive in the 18-45 win by finishing 73 seconds ahead of Mater Dei Catholic’s top runner, sophomore Joshua Dunphy.
Like Eastlake’s girls team, the Lancer boys will be challenging to qualify as a team for this year’s state championship meet. They will get a good barometric reading onf Friday as Hilltop challenges Otay Ranch for the Mesa League team championship.
The Mustangs, with their minuscule pack time, have suddenly become the favorite to win this year’s Division I race at the section finals.
The Lancers do not seem far behind.
Hilltop scored four of the top six finishers in last Friday’s dual against the Titans. Byland and Tisnado (15:59) placed one-two on the hill course while Martinez (16:33) and Santiago (16:39) were third and fourth, respectively. Senior Eddie Castaneda (16:42) and Hilltop teammate Malachi McCoy (17:24) finished fifth and sixth.
The teams split the top 10 finishers with five runners each
“We’re going out our hardest to represent our school,” Tisnado said. “We all have a passion for the sport. We’re all brothers out there. We’re excited to race all these teams going into CIF.”
The Mustangs tuned up for Friday’s league finals by out-pointing Olympian, 15-50, last Friday by flooding the finish line with the top eight finishers.
Juniors Jacob Juden (17:22) and Jake Shorey (17:22) led the Otay Ranch scoring parade, followed by freshman Zachary Shorey (17:22), juniors Rodolfo Baza (17:30) and Christopher Harvie (17:35), sophomore David Castellon (18:11), junior Nathan Nouvong (18:31) and junior Sinjin Torga-Eide (18:36).
The Mustangs’ five-man spread was an ultra-tight 13 seconds.
That’s championship caliber running.
Metro Conference Cross Country
Finals Time Schedule
Boys Varsity, 2 p.m.
Girls Varsity, 2:30 p.m.
Boys Junior Varsity, 3 p.m.
Girls Junior Varsity, 3:30 p.m.
