City Finals

A near perfect day of weather led to a near perfect performance by the San Pedro Cross Country team today at the LA City Section Finals. The Pirates won 3 of the 4 championships on the day (two individual and 2 team), and qualified one team and two individuals for the prestigious California State High School Meet in Fresno next Saturday. The day started with the varsity boys’ race, and Pablo Rosales wasted no time in showing his back to the rest of the field. Pablo never looked back, and won by over 30 seconds, in a new City record of 14:31 to capture his first cross country title, and his 4th title in track and cross country, and led the Pirates to a 4th place finish. David Rosales also got out fast and finished in 9th, securing a spot on the bus to Fresno next weekend. Alex Villaescusa PR’d in 30th, 3 seconds ahead of Abel Barron, with Jonah Delgado another 6 seconds back in 35th place. Fernando Alfaro ran his best time ever in 46th place, despite stopping to repair a flat tire, while Christian Velasquez also PR’d 6 places later.

 

The girls raced last, but they quickly got out to a lead and stayed there. The Pirates scored a low 31 points, to beat 2nd place Birmingham and Taft by a whopping 95 points! Laura Delgado ran a lifetime best by over 45 seconds to defy all of the pre-race prognosticators, and capture the LA City title. Most people didn’t even consider her as a tile contender, but she took control with a little less than a mile to go, and won by almost 15 seconds. The Pirates then just demoralized the rest of the City as frosh Lorena Garcia (7th), Tiana Thorp (8th), Evelyn Gonzalez (9th), Jocelyn Silva (10th), and Itzel Ramirez (11th) made a long gold line and got to the finish line before any other teams #2 runner! Frosh Lauren Mayeda finished off the historic day, securing the 6th PR of the day for the girls, and just missing breaking the 20:00 barrier in 30th place. The girls won their 7th LA City title in cross country in the last 11 years, and moved ahead of Belmont (who has 6) as the all-time section leader in cross country titles. It was only appropriate on this day that All-Time San Pedro great Valerie Flores handed out the awards and took pictures afterwards with the ecstatic Pirate harriers.

Bruce (AKA Coach T)

 

The girls’ team and Pablo and David Rosales will run next Saturday in the State Meet in Fresno, leaving on Friday morning and returning to San Pedro on Saturday night. The Cross Country Banquet should be the Friday after Martin Luther King Day in January, but more information will be forthcoming. Congrats on a great season to all of the Pirate harriers, and good luck to the State Meet participants next week!