MMC CLUSTER MEET #3

Today was the "rumble by the river" as the seven MMC schools hooked up for the third time this year.

The F/S boys were the first Downey runners to take on the Legion loop course. David led the Downey youngsters for most of the race. On the third loop Alfonso and Tyler had closed the gap with David. Down the stretch, Alfonso pulled away from David to be Downey's top finisher. Andrew H. had a huge improvement from two weeks ago as did Jacob. There were 61 runners.

18. Urbano 13:15
19. O'Bryan 13:19
25. Bingham 13:21
33. Solorzano 13:52
38. Heltne 14:17 (1:38 improvement)
40. Freitas 14:23
47. Foreman 14:50 (1:04 improvement)

The short-handed varsity girls (missing Katie and Natalie) were first up on the full three loop, 3.03 mi course. Sierra went out strong. Roccio was in good position. Karina and Rory were next in the pack of girls. As the race progressed the gap between Sierra and Roccio grew as did the gap between Karina and Rory. Abby would eventually move up on the ailing Rory and nearly catch her at the line. Most of the girls would improve their times from 2 weeks ago, with Yaneli, Araceli, Aly, Sierra, and Abby all jumping more than 30 seconds. Sierra's time moved her to #2 on the all-time Downey list and Roccio moved into #7 on the same list. There were 46 total runners.

4. Durham 20:18 (:33 improvement)
13. Ramirez-Castro 22:10
20. Redding 23:11 (:11 improvement)
22. Jimenez 24:07
23. Homan 24:07 (:30 improvement)
26. Ortiz 24:24 (:48 improvement)
32. Urbano 26:38
33. Reynolds 26:39 (:41 improvement)
34. Williams 27:14 (:06 improvement)
35. Reyes 27:14 (:44 improvement)

The varsity boys were the final group up on the course. They learned only minutes before the meet that Andrew O. was ill and wouldn't race today. This was a real blow to their hopes of picking off Grace Davis and finishing second in the team standings. Pierson led the charge on the first loop. He went out WAY WAY too fast and would be swallowed up by a mass of cruising MoHi runners. Guadalupe and Kenji would catch Pierson after two loops, and the three of them would run much of the final circuit together.  Ernesto seemed to be making a move up on the second loop, however by the end of the third cycle he faded badly and Ryan passed him and pulled away over the final 800 meters. Kenji and Ryan were the only two boys who improved their times from Cluster #2.

12. G. Torres 19:13
13. Devers 19:15
15. K. Soares 19:20 (:07 improvement)
25. Holloway 20:18 (:06 improvement)
28. Limon 20:41
36. Ippolito 22:38
48. Nakai 27:17

LINK TO PICTURES:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41403&id=1807850130&l=1961931a78