La Mirada High School

Suburban League Custer Meet #1:
STEP #1 to 4-in-a-Row
Despite the predictions of the local press, the La Mirada Cross Country runners established themselves as the ones to beat in Suburban League this year. A Wednesday morning article that appeared in the Long Beach Press Telegram added fuel to the Matadores fire. The article listed the Suburban League teams to watch as the Lady Mats, who "will try to advance to the CIF Southern Section preliminaries for the 19th consecutive year" and the Cerritos Dons, who "are a legitimate contender to win their first Suburban League title after winning the ABC District championship last week." The La Mirada girls, led by senior, Sonia Linares, came up their own prediction: "Nothing less than FOUR IN A ROW!"

Knowing they had to face a vastly improved Cerritos team on their home territory for the first cluster meet, the Matadores were aware that this season would bring a level of competition they had long awaited. Self-doubt and numerous injuries over the pre-season slowed down their progress. Only a much improved team performance at last week's Roadrunner Classic convinced the girls that they were up to the challenge. Running in the 3rd race of the day, the Lady Mats were led by Sonia and Erica Sandoval who established a comfortable pace and placed themselves right behind Mayfair's freshman, Kristina Rogers. After a slow opening mile they made their move and positioned themselves as 1-2 in the race. They were followed by Rogers, Norwalk's Jessika Cos and Matadore senior, Ana Poblet, whose goal for the day was to finish ahead of the Cerritos seven. Veteran, Destinie Martin and "rookie" Adele Mata concluded that they needed to finish in the top 10 and in the process "break up" the top 5 Don scorers. They were successful, as Martin finished #9 and Mata #12. Freshman, Karina Gonzalez and Senior, Megan Burbidge rounded the scoring for the Matadores. In the end, the girls narrowly defeated the Cerritos team (31 - 46) and achieved the first step towards completing a 4-year sweep of the Suburban League. If they plan to stay ahead of the Cerritos and Mayfair teams at Cluster Meets #2 and #3, the Lady's will have to stay healthy and focused.

Jared Bird was quite interested in the same Press Telegram article that listed Norwalk's Eddie Perez as the Suburban League favorite. Having finished behind Eddie for the past 3 years, Jared trusted his training enough to sit on the pace and wait. Running the most controlled race of his young career, Bird made a slight surge after the 2-mile that elicited no response from the Norwalk runner. With 800 meters left in the race, Jared ran alone and handily won the race. Unfortunately, Eddie's teammates were faster than Jared's teammates on the 3.05 mile course as the boys once again finished in 2nd place (21 - 74) ahead of the host Cerritos Dons. Unlike last season when the Matadores finished #2, #3, & #6, this year's team was able to place only Jared in the top ten! The teams meet again on October 13th at La Mirada Regional Park where they will race on the Biola University course. The Boys Varsity team is made up of Nathaniel Moore, Jarod Winn, Andrew Diaz, Kevin Osborn, David Gonzales and Jim Palmer.

In the JV levels, Clarissa Negrete (23:58) narrowly missed a first place finish as she was caught at the finish line by a Cerritos runner. Clarissa, who led from start til (almost) finish, led her team to a 2nd place finish. This was only the 2nd loss for the JV team since 1998. The JV boys were not quite so fast. Led by Elojah De Rojas, the boys finished in 6th place and have a lot of training to do if they expect to regain the form they had last season.

The first ever Suburban League cluster meet counts for 25% of the final standings and was scored as an invitational; the second cluster meet, at La Mirada Regional on October 13th, will count 25% of the final standings and be scored head-to-head; and the third cluster meet, at Mt. SAC on November 3rd, will count as 50% of the final standings and will provide the basis for any tie-breaker. The current standings are as follows: