La Mirada High School

Mt SAC Invitational:
Lady Mats take home top spot; Garza sets a new standard
On a day when temperatures ranged from the low 50s to the high 90s, the Matadores challenged the prestigious Mount San Antonio College 3-mile cross country course and came home more than satisfied with the results. Junior, Joey Ballesteros, who almost missed the 5:30 a.m. departure time, kicked off the competition in the 7:00 a.m. race that resulted in a finish time just a few seconds short of his season PR. Up next, the JV Lady Mats tested their legs over the hilly course. Led by senior, Bianca Ceballos, who ran almost 2 minutes faster than last season, the JV team finished the day with PRs from rookies Charlotte Custodio and Rhea Santiago. Tania Ibarra, Jessica Bermudez, and Selena Baker rounded out the scoring for the JV team. Shortly after the end of the JV races, the varsity teams competed in the last of the early morning races.

One-by-one, as they shared their goals for the day, the varsity Lady Mats expressed one simple intent: Earn the right to stand on the victor's podium and use this race as a stepping stone for the remainder of the 2008 season. They realized their bold sentiments were worthless unless they could be backed up by action, but they were confident in their ability to step their racing up another notch. Led by Celinda Manzo and Melissa Byrd, the girls were content to sit back for the first mile before Manzo, Byrd, and Lauren McIntyre aggressively moved into the top 15 spots and were soon joined by Ashley Casanover in the 25th spot. Close behind Casanover was junior, Paulina Tapia, whose finish time of 20:22 was 3:12 faster than last season. Of the entire Matadores team, Tapia showed the greatest improvement over the 2007 race. She was followed by Aja Labasan (20:41), at 2:32 faster than last year, and Olivia Crigler (23:03), who was 3:07 faster than last year's race. When the scores were tallied, the girls learned they were 50 points ahead of the closest team and in the top spot! Their 1st place finish marks the first time in school history that a La Mirada varsity team has earned 1st place at the Mt. SAC Invitational. With their medals securely around their necks, the trip to the podium was filled with excitement, disbelief, and the realization that they are indeed good enough to achieve in three weeks what no other team from La Mirada has ever achieved: A spot on the starting line at the CIF-SS Finals race.

2008 has been a series of successes and disappointments for the boy's varsity team. They've established multiple PRS and earned the right to call themselves La Mirada's "Fastest Team" ever, but their performances have been less than stellar in league competition. At Mt. SAC, their goal was to turn the season around. Running with only six competitors, the boys raced smart and improved on their 2007 team-time performance by close to 3.5 minutes. They were led by the 5th place finish of senior, Andrew Garza, whose time of 16:06 set a new school record (hand timing at the finish line showed Garza's time at 15:56. If so, he is the first Matadore to break 16 minutes at Mt. SAC. -- unfortunately, we'll never know!) Garza wasn't the only Matadore to have a break out day; both Regan Garcia and Michael Palmer established Mt. SAC PRs as they narrowly missed the 16 minute zone. Rounding out the scoring for Matadores were Frankie Nogales and Mateo Cordova.

By the time the sweepstakes races were completed, the temperatures had skyrocketed into the low 90s and there were still four more races before the Matadores could call it a day. The freshman boys were the first team to test the heat. Led by Clint Bales, who chose to sit out the varsity race, the boys had outstanding performances from Jai Labasan, the only boy to establish a PR, Jeremy De La Rosa, and Eric Wong. On the girls side, Amber Hickman was one of only four Matadores to earn a medal for the day, as she and Katie Sutter led the freshman Lady Mats.

Even though the sophomore teams competed at high noon, they were able to secure respectable enough times. The boys were led by Joseph Jeon and Justine Mellot while the girls were led by Charlene Ganton and Victoria Vo.