East County Sports

They’re off… harriers usher prep return

Amber Chase of El Capitan races on Friday. / ECHS

2021 EAST COUNTY PREP CROSS COUNTRY

ECS staff report

EL CAJON – California’s stay-at-home ban has been lifted, giving high school athletes and coaches something to cheer about as sports for the current school year are now underway following a six-month delay when the gun sounded Friday (Feb. 12) to begin cross country competition.

Cross country, traditionally one of the strongest sports in East County, is coming off a down season locally in 2019, which resulted without a CIF San Diego Section boys team champion and just a pair of all-CIFSDS athletes — both graduated seniors.

So let the 2020-in-21 campaign kickoff with conference dual meet action.

Valhalla, Granite Hills runners at the start on Friday. / VHS

Valhalla 20, Granite Hills 35

At Valhalla: Everything turned up aces for the Norsemen, as Manuel Campos took medalist honors in a time of 11:11, as the host placed their five runners among the top seven to vanquish their Jamacha neighbors from the north.

Valhalla’s Nicholas Nance captured a battle with the Eagles’ Mel De Alba-Ruiz for second place, then it was all orange as Vince Cono followed to clinch the triumph.

Steele Canyon 15, Helix 48

At Jamul: Diego Lopez fueled a Cougars assault that saw the host place six runners under 15 minutes to shutout the Highlanders.

Lopez breezed in 14:27 over the 2.55-mile circuit, followed by teammates Angel Arredondo, Bradley Bell, Juan Pablo Arredondo, and Dominic Rizzo to secure the perfect score of 15.

The Scotties were obviously hurting with the loss of senior Jaden Forester, an all-CIF selection last season.

Grossmont 21, West Hills 34

At western Santee: Conversely, unlike Helix, the Foothillers did not miss all-CIF honoree Devin Provence after taking five of the top seven positions from the host Wolf Pack.

Ian Rosen romped through the 3.3 Km course in a flat 11 minutes, followed by teammate Russel Blakely, who was three seconds back.

West Hills displayed some quality runners in Mark McCowin (11:17) and Landon Morales (11:22), the rest of the podium belonged to the Hillers.

Santana 15, El Capitan 49

At Jamul: One year removed from a team medal at the CIFSDS championships, the Vaqueros might need to start from scratch after nearby Sultans were quite un-neighborly in a shutout victory.

Jack McMackin motored through the Steele Canyon course in an even 14 minutes to registered the best clocking by any runner of the afternoon.

McMackin was followed by Connor Cherry (14:16), who had the third-best time on the day, followed by teammates Mateo Graham, Jayson Oliver Cameron Thomas.

Elsewhere in GVL action, ECVHS and Mount Miguel could each send only two healthy athletes to the starting line in a No-Score dual. The same thing happened in Saturday morning’s City League dual when Christian traveled to Clairemont.

GIRLS

El Capitan girls cross country on Friday. / ECHS

El Capitan 25, Santana 32

At Steele Canyon: The Vaqueros are poised to make a run at a third consecutive CIF team medal with a host of underclassmen.

Sophomore Amber Chase left the rest of the field chasing, dominating to earn medalist honors by more than a minute to fuel the Vaqueros past Santana.

Chase looked in mid-season form by cracking the 16-minute barrier in a clocking of 15:55 over the 5.1-kilometer course.

Santana demonstrated its team depth to make a meet closer than El Cap has faced in several seasons. The Sultans’ Mikayla Horning out-kicked El Cap sophomore Samantha Mauzy (17:05) to take second by five seconds.

Next came Vaqs senior Ashley Boinus (17:37), finishing narrowly ahead of freshman Jillian Rudolph in her varsity debut.

El Capitan was the 2018 CIF San Diego Section champion in its division, then it was the runner-up in 2019.

Grossmont 27, West Hills 29
At western Santee: The closest dual on Friday (Feb. 12) nearly came down to the displacement runners, as the visiting Foothillers pinched the Pack.
Grossmont senior Madeline Minutelli dominated with a 53-second margin of victory, but the Wolf Pack followed with quality runners.
The next thee finishers — Berea Crescitelli, Berea Crescitelli ad Angelica Emlund — hailed from West Hills.

However, the Pack roster proved too top-heavy, as the next four coming across the line were all Hillers — the exact formula needed to barely claim the meet.

Elsewhere, the other GVL race was vacated as ECVHS and Mount Miguel only had four runners each. The City League saw Christian’s Alaina Zamorano romp to medalist honors with a winning margin of exactly 100 seconds, but the Patriots only had four runners in falling to host Clairemont.
The late GHL meet saw host Steele Canyon pummel Helix, 15-50, behind medalist Graziella Mineo. Eight Cougars were clock at-or-below 16 minutes before a member of the Scotties crossed the line.
Fri., Feb. 12
BOYS
Grossmont Hills League
Valhalla 20, Granite Hills 35
At Valhalla (3.00m/4.83km)
 
GH / VAL
—    1 Manuel Campos, 11:11.5
—    2 Nicholas Nance, 11:35.4
 3   — Mel De Alba-Ruiz, 11:40.7
—    4 Vincent Cono, 11:46
 5   — Taylor Ham, 12:19.8
—    6 Jacob Dunnam, 12:29
—    7 Carter Vanderhoofven, 12:30.5
 8   — James Coleman, 12:33.4
 9   — Alexander Cantrell, 12:35.2
10   — Jonatan Escobedo, 12:47.3
35   20
 
Steele Canyon 15, Helix Charter 48
At Steele Canyon (2.55m/4.10km)
 
HC / SC
—    1 Diego Lopez, 14:12
—    2 Angel Arredondo, 14:27
—    3 Bradley Bell, 14:33
—    4 Juan Pablo Arredondo, 14:33
—    5 Dominic Rizzo, 14:57
—    6 Sergio Gaytan, 14:59
 7   — Joshua Caneday, 15:41
 8   — Darren Justeson, 15:44
—    9 Jacob Binsfield, 16:30
—   10 Logan Ha, 16:38
10   — Jacob Breau, 17:02
11   — Lucas Fiero, 18:16
12   — Dylan Towne, 19:23
48   15
 
Grossmont 21, West Hills 34
At West Hills (2.05m/3.30km)
 
GR / WH
 1   — Ian Rosen, 11:00
 2   — Russell Blakely, 11:03
—    3 Mark Mccowin, 11:17
—    4 Landon Morales, 11:22
 5   — Kei Okura, 11:45
 6   — Joshua Edwards, 11:47
 7   — Mason Coyle, 11:47
—    8 Sean Willweber, 12:07
—    9 Ethan Trantalis, 12:11
—   10 Brandon Bennett, 12:23
21   34
 
Grossmont Valley League
Santana 15, El Capitan 49
At Steele Canyon (2.55m/4.10km)
 
SA / EC
 1   — Jack McMackin, 14:00
 2   — Connor Cheary, 14:16
 3   — Mateo Graham, 14:28
 4   — Jayson Oliver, 14:43
 5   — Cameron Thomas, 14:45
SA   — James Stuermer, 14:47
—    7 Trey Dixon, 14:50
SA   — Cameron Bressler, 15:03
—    9 Dominic Villarruel, 15:09
—   10 Elias Rudolph, 15:51
—   11 ustin Boinus, 16:55
—   12 Lewis Franco, 17:35
15   49
 
ECVHS vs. Mount Miguel, no score
At West Hills (2.05m/3.30km)
 
MM / ECV
—    1 Daniel Monganga, 11:12
 2   — Thomas Peralta, 14:16
 3   — Edward Foote Najera, 14:18
—    4 Ayman Abdullah, 14:23
GIRLS
Grossmont Valley League
El Capitan 25, Santana 32
At Steele Canyon (2.55m/4.10km)
EC / SA
 1   — Amber Chase, 15:55
—    2 Mikayla Horning, 17:05
 3   — Samantha Mauzy, 17:10
 4   — Ashley Boinus, 17:37
 5   — Jillian Rudolph, 17:40
—    6 Brianna Edwards, 18:36
—    7 Marie Tischer, 19:12
—    8 Trinity Johnson, 19:27
—    9 Abigail Melius, 19:41
—   SA Lacey Oliver, 19:48
—   SA Kristen Bressler, 19:52
12   — Chloe Sarot, 26:31

25   32

 

ECVHS vs. Mount Miguel, no score
At West Hills (2.05m/3.30km)
MM / ECV
 1   — Kenzie Reyn, 16:11
—    2 Natalia Butrus, 17:11
 3   — Noemi Osuna, 17:53
 4   — Madeline Haines, 18:01
 5   — Julia Foote Najera, 18:31
—    6 Libertad Millan, 19:44
—    7 Esmeralda Bautista, 20:05

—    8 Dulce Zarate Hernandez, 20:18

Grossmont Hills League
Grossmont 27, West Hills 29
At West Hills (2.05m/3.30km)
GR / WH
 1   — Madeline Minutelli, 12:38
—    2 Berea Crescitelli. 13:31
—    3 Angelica Emlund, 13:49
—    4 Lillian Bozeman, 14:45
 5   — Isabel Cervantes, 15:09
 6   — Junniet Mascareno, 16:00
 7   — Olivia Wangler, 16:03
 8   — Sara Standlee, 16:21
—    9 Loren Bloom, 17:00 
GR   — Emily Rivas, 17:11
—   11 Savanna Gillespie, 18:49
27   29
Valhalla 19, Granite Hills 36
At Valhalla (2.00m/3.22Km)
GH / VAL (incomplete)
—    1 Branski, 1:56
—    2 Kraft, 12:40
—    3 Olander, 13:38
—    4 Kasyouhannon,13:56
 5   — Cahill, 14:32
 6   — N/A
 7   — N/A
 8   — N/A
—    9 N/A

10   — N/A

 

Steele Canyon 15, Helix 50
At Steele Canyon (2.55m/4.10km)
STANDINGS
BOYS
Grossmont Hills League
Grossmont 1-0, Steele Canyon 1-0, Valhalla 1-0, Granite Hills 0-1, Helix 0-1, West Hills 0-1.
Grossmont Valley League
Santana 1-0, Monte Vista 0-0, El Capitan 0-1, ECVHS 0-1, Mount Miguel 0-1.
Medalist Leaders

1 – Campos (Val), Lopez (SC), McMacklin (San), Monganga (ECV), Rosen (Gro).

GIRLS
Grossmont Hills League
Grossmont 1-0, Valhalla 1-0, Steele Canyon Charter 1-0, West Hills 0-1, Granite Hills 0-1, Helix Charter 0-1.
Grossmont Valley League
El Capitan 1-0, Monte Vista 0-0, Santana 0-1, ECVHS 0-1, Mount Miguel 0-1.
City League
Clairemont 1-0, Christian 0-1, Hoover 0-0, Lincoln 0-0, Mission Bay 0-0.
Medalist Leaders
1 – Branski (Val), Chase (EC), Minutelli (Gro), Reyn (MM), A.Zamorano (Chr), Mineo (SC).

SCHEDULE

Fri., Feb. 19
Steele Canyon vs. Grossmont
Granite Hills vs. Helix
West Hills vs. Valhalla
ECVHS vs. Santana
Mount Miguel vs. Monte Vista
Bye: El Capitan
Fri., Feb. 26
West Hills vs, Granite Hills
Valhalla vs. Steele Canyon
Grossmont vs. Helix
El Capitan vs. Mount Miguel
Monte Vista vs. ECVHS
Bye: Santana
Fri., Mar. 5
Valhalla vs. Helix
Steele Canyon vs. West Hills
Grossmont vs. Granite Hills
Mount Miguel vs. Santana
El Capitan vs. Monte Vista
Bye: ECVHS
Fri., Mar. 12
Valhalla vs. Grossmont
Granite Hills vs. Steele Canyon
Helix vs. West Hills
El Capitan vs. ECVHS
Mote Vista vs. Santana
Bye: Mount Miguel
Sat., Mar. 20
TBA, Grossmont Conf. Finals

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