La Mirada High School

This Year's Freshman girls are led by Katrina, Erica, Krystal & Karina

SUNNY HILLS INVITE
On a perfect day for racing, the Matadores of La Mirada put forth a valiant effort at the Sunny Hills Invitational at Craig Park. Over all, 16 runners earned new PRs at Sunny Hills and many more earned medals. The first race of the day started exactly at 8:00 a.m. with Sonia Linares, Ana Poblet, Destinie Martin, Adele Mata and Erica Sandoval lining up for the blue clad Lady Mats. Erica, who has not raced yet this season, was counseled to stay with the front pack for the first mile and evaluate her knee pain. Happy that she was able to stay with the leaders, Erica thought of completing the race, but reluctantly dropped out after an opening mile of 6 minutes. Sonia (20:39) took over from there and was again the Lady's top runner of the day as she earned another PR. Ana followed close behind, disappointed that she was unable to complete the 3-mile course in under 21 minutes. The surprise finisher was once again Adele Mata (20:24) who returned to action for only the second time after suffering a broken foot during the 2003 campaign. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Mats were Destinie (22:12) and Megan (23:44).

In the Boys race, Jared Bird wasn't able to maintain the opening pace and fell back to a disappointing 16:47. Jared, coming off of his first Varsity win against a strong La Habra team on Thursday, has been the #1 scorer in each of La Mirada's first three races this season. Nathaniel Moore, apparently fully recovered from an illness that hindered his performance during the 2004 track season, really picked up the pace this week as he closed out the race with a sub 5:30 closing mile. Nate did not seem to be affected by the injury that forced him out of Thursday's race against La Habra and Cal High. Andrew Diaz displayed his importance to the team with a huge improvement to 17:45, and Jarod Winn (18:03) is quickly closing in on the 17 minute territory. Rounding out the scoring for the Matadores were Jim Palmer (19:59) and Elijah De Rojas (21:25).

In the lower divisions, with the exception of Jenna and David, each freshman and sophomore runner earned a new PR. The girls were led by PR performances from freshmen Katrina Drake (22:43) and Karina Gonzales (22:55), who were the numbers 5 and 6 scorers for the Lady Mats. The boys were led again this week by David Gonzales (18:32).

The next competition takes place at La Mirada Regional Park this Saturday when the Matadores take part in the Roadrunner Classic sponsored by St. John Bosco High School.