La Mirada High School

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LA MIRADA REGIONAL PARK: BIOLA UNIVERSITY 3-MILE COURSE
With cluster Meet #1 out of the way, the Matadores took to the more friendly hills of La Mirada Regional Park for Cluster Meet #2. And even though the results were mixed, the numerous success stories vastly outweighed the few disappointments.

The first race of the day began with the JV boys fielding enough runners to score in the meet. After an heroic start by the rookies and new runners, the boys fell back and finished in fourth place. On a positive note, it was the first race of the season for three of the J.V. Matadores and they all performed well.

The girls JV race began with two key athletes forced to sit out the race. Both Lillian Mignella and Tasha LeBrija were told to rest another week before attempting to race. In their absence, the JV team regrouped just before race time and committed themselves to improving their performance over the first cluster meet where they finished a distant second. Taking the lead in the first 400 meters, Sarah Jeon led a pack of five girls from Cerritos High School through the first mile. Sarah, recovering from an injury that sidelined her for the last week, maintained her early lead and was soon followed by Krystal Gomez, who finished second in the race---this was Krystal's finest overall performance in a Matadore uniform! Significantly, veteran Andrea Smith and rookie Caitlin Winn were able to break up the strong Cerritos pack as they completed the race in 6th and 7th place. Junior Kristen Kimball sealed the victory as the Lady Mats 5th runner. The JV Lady Mats, who had their five-year winning streak snapped last season, reversed the trend at this meet as they narrowly defeated Cerritos by a score of 26 to 29. They are now tied with Cerritos for the top spot as the teams enter League Finals.

The third race of the day---Girls Varsity---was destined to be competitive. With four strong Suburban League teams vying for the top spot, every athlete was up for battle. The race began with Stephanie Felix taking an early lead followed by Kristen Rogers of Mayfair and Jessika Cos of Norwalk. Destinie Martin, Karina Gonzalez and newcomer Sara Felix were all in the top ten as the runners approached the end of the first mile. The numerous hills in the second mile were to work in favor of the Lady Mats on this day. As the girls neared the turn heading into the third mile, Adele Mata and Clarissa Negrete had slowly moved their way closer to the front of the pack. The Lady Mats now had six runners in the top 13. Unfortunately, Adele's knee was not able to hold up and she dropped out of the race at mile two. Undaunted, Clarissa continued on pace and was the 5th scorer for the team, finishing in 12th place.

Stephanie completed the course in a sizzling 18:33, two minutes ahead of the second runner. Destinie, Karina and Sara finished in the 5th, 7th and 8th spots, separated by only 17 seconds. When it was over, the Lady Mats discovered they had achieved their goal for the day by holding off all League teams. Mayfair finished the day in 2nd place, followed by Norwalk and Cerritos. La Mirada enters League finals with 12 points to 9 for Norwalk and 8 for Mayfair.

In the final race of the day, the varsity boys were hoping for a 3rd place finish. With illness and injury interfering with their training, the boys knew they needed a strong performance from each runner. Andrew Diaz and Andrew Bueno got off to fine starts and were able to maintain their spots throughout the race as they finished in 4th and 6th place respectively. A furious finish by Dennis Ly put the Matadores in position to move into third place, but, unfortunately, reoccurrence of a lingering injury to Mark Gillaspy took him out of the race by mile two. Matt Campbell, Daniel Diaz, and Michael Palmer raced valiantly, but were unable to make up the difference as the Matadores lost to the 3rd place team by a score of 26 to 29. Fortunately, they were able to out-kick the 5th place team by the narrowest of margins---27 to 28. The boys enter league finals is 4th place.

The second cluster meet counted as 25% of the final standings and was scored head-to-head with a team earning a point for each opposing team they beat. League Finals, on November 3rd and also at La Mirada Regional Park, will count as 50% of the final standings and will provide the basis for any tie-breaker. Current standings heading into league finals are as follows: