La Mirada High School

Arcadia Invitational (dyestatcal link)
Fast Times, PRs, and New School Team Time Record for Lady Mats
Enticed by the promise of fast times and PRs, the Matadores have made the trip to Arcadia County Park a season ending tradition since 2005, the year the Lady Mats took first place at the competition. And, while there were no first place awards, there were multiple PRs, lots of medals, and positive results over the flat 3-mile loop course. All-in-all, the Frosh-Soph and JV harriers came home with 17 all-time personal bests to their credit, while the varsity boys added three and the varsity girls added six. Racing under the early afternoon sun, the Frosh-soph girls, led by Caitlin Sutter and Victoria Vo struggled early in the race to find their paces before coming back strong with their best race of the year. On the boys side, both Jeremy De La Rosa and Justin Mellot had breakout performances and are closing in on the 19 minute territory. Justin was named La Mirada's male "Athlete of the Meet" for his effort.

Unlike most invitationals, at Arcadia there is an opportunity to place 10 athletes on the starting line for the varsity teams. This allowed three rookies a chance to test themselves against varsity competition for the first time in their young careers. Wearing the varsity blue for the first time were Charlene Ganton and Amber Hickman for the girls, and Eric Wong for the boys. All three of them raced well, with Amber and Eric earning big PRs. Amber was named La Mirada's female "Athlete of the Meet."

Despite coming home without any "hardware" for the first time this season, the varsity girls made it clear once again that they expect to be known as the fastest team in school history. Led by an 8th place finish from sophomore, Celinda Manzo, the Lady Mats established a new team time record of 1:33:47. Just as significant, the gap between number 1 and 5 was only 55 seconds, the closest it's been since 2001. The girls were en route to placing their top six under 20 minutes when a slight mishap to Aja Labasan in the last mile slowed her down by close to 40 seconds; she was still able to complete the course with a respectable time of 20:10 to finish with a new PR. A season ending injury sustained by the Lady Mats number 7 runner, Olivia Crigler, caused her to slow down to almost a walk.

Upcoming next for the Matadores: Suburban League Finals at La Mirada Regional Park. The schedule of races is as follows: JV Girls at 1:45 p.m.; JV Boys at 2:30 p.m.;Varsity Girls at 3:15 p.m.; and Varsity Boys at 3:45 p.m.