La Mirada High School

In 2005, the Lady Mats team time at Long Beach was 1:41:06, the sophomore squad placed 3rd, and Stephanie's time of 18:15 was the fastest of the day. This year the girl's team time was 1:39:19, they were overall the 6th fastest team at the meet, and Stephanie again ran the fastest time of the day. Unfortunately, the girls got on the bus feeling like they did not live up to their expectations or goals. They realized that a scoring punch dominated by the numbers 1, 2, 3 runners combined with a 3:52 gap between the 1st and 5th runner denied them a chance for a top three spot. In fact, they were less than a second behind the 5th place team! Hopefully the lack of depth won't come back to haunt them later in the season. Running by grade level, the girls were led by senior Stephanie Felix and junior Melissa Byrd who finished first and second in their respective races. Third scorer for the Matadores at Long Beach was freshman Ashley Casanover, who's perfect attendance this summer showed why consistent training is so important to a successful fall season. Ashley led a group of six rookies in the first girl's race of the day. Tatiana Cortes, with a strong PR, was the sole Lady Mat to add a varsity uniform to her wardrobe.

This year's boys team has worked diligently all summer and has made a strong climb from the 2005 season when they placed a distant 4th in league competition. Still, they were able to place only one Matadore under 17 minutes and were over a minute slower than the pace-setting 2002 team. This year's contingent was led by junior Andrew Garza, who is still nursing a strained hip. He was followed by seniors Mark Gillaspy and Dennis Ly, who were both clocked at 17:04 -- PRs for both. Dennis, who was tripped and lost his shoe during the first mile, ran the majority of the race with bare feet. Fortunately he suffered only a blister and will be ready for the next race. Newcomer Brett Berger earned his varsity stripes at the meet and sophomores Richard Marquez and Andrew Herrick weaved through the large sophomore pack to earn PRs. The second pack -- Brett, Richard and Andrew -- is rapidly closing the gap on the leaders and they all hope to soon be clocking times in the 17 minute range.

Matadores JV athletes fared well at the invitational and made a strong case for moving up to the varsity level. On the girls side, Lillian Mignella and Serena Kirton pushed the pace and just missed qualifying for a varsity uniform. Since camp, 14 girls and 6 boys have joined the team . The newcomers are rapidly moving up the ladder of success and are almost prepared to train and race with the rest of the team. Racing this week were Clarissa Cabrera, Marina Whitfield, Vanessa Conchas, Mabel Velasco, Aja Labasan and Regan Garcia. Aja and Regan went out strong and were the fastest rookies of the day.

La Mirada "Athletes of the Meet" were Tatiana Cortes and Dennis Ly. The Matadores harriers face La Serna and La Habra this Thursday at La Habra High School.