Welcome Valencia Cross Country Athletes and Fans!

2008 Empire League Champions 6 years in a Row!

CIF Finals Qualifier 10 years in a Row!

2008 Team Quote "Champions run hard when it's hard to run!"

2009 UPCOMING EVENTS:

Summer: Run, eat, sleep, run, eat, sleep, run, repeat until State...

Saturday June 27: Valencia's 75th Anniversary, Noon to 6:00 pm, team table to meet alumni, sell t-shirts. We need volunteers, contact the coaches by email, call or just show up!

Now: Captain's Practices! 

Saturday July 4: Trail run! Team and Coaches together at last, woo-hoo! 

August 9-12: Big Bear Running Camp! 

DO YOU WANT TO WIN TODAY?" Awesome Video

Congrats to our 2009 graduates, 100% on to college!

• Jose Gutierrez: Cal State Fullerton, Athletic scholarship!
• Alex Torres: Cal State Fullerton
• Paul Goslin: Cal State Fullerton
• Thomas Dong: UC Riverside
• Brian Tsu: Fullerton Collegs
• Luis Avellaneda: Fullerton College
• Danny Gonzalez: Fullerton College
• Gerardo Uribe: Santiago College

New! Valencia Track Website

Please email Coach Hadley for more information at: phadley007@roadrunner.com

Jose finishes his cross country season and career at Valencia with a fourth State Meet appearance and by running his best time on the Woodward Park course! Jose raced aggressively, positioning himself in the top 20 for the first two miles before fading slightly in the last mile to place 33rd with a time of 15:53 for the 5k.

Jose leaves behind a legacy of what it means to be dedicated to ones sport and team. He also is one of the most thoughtful and good-natured young man a team could have. Congratulations on a great career in cross country and thank you for the influence you leave behind!

Congratulations to Jose Gutierrez who qualified for the State Meet! Jose will have run in the State Meet all of his four years at Valencia! Jose finished 13th with a time of 15:27. The team also finished 13th and the season ends here at CIF Finals. 13th of 101 teams in Division II is not too bad!

The team did not have the race we could have, but we have overcome a lot: missing Tayyab this season with a bone infection, Sean and his appendectomy right before League Finals, Alex with an eye infection and, overall, not having a very experienced team at the Varsity level. That being said, we did have some great accomplishments too! We are Empire League Co-Champions, keeping our streak to 6 in a row, we finished 5th at the Orange County Championships and we gave many younger runners a chance to run varsity this year to prepare them for next season.

It was a most enjoyable journey this season because of the fine young men on this team. You are good to each other, have a solid work ethic and really care about your team, your sport and your school! Next year we return some experienced Varsity runners and also have some very talented frosh/soph runners will develop with miles and time!

"Champions run hard when it is hard to run", our slogan for this year, was exactly what the Tigers did on Saturday to advance to the CIF Finals! The team raced at 9:20, much hotter than the other Division II heats and finished 3rd of 14 teams in the race with a great 1-5 time gap of 58 seconds, good to go on!

Jose Gutierrez once again led the Tigers with a spectacular 3rd place finish followed by Luis Avellaneda in 14th, Sean Krinik in 19th, Brad Cooke in 22nd, and Alex Torres in 25th. What is amazing and a blessing was to have Sean Krinik back racing after only two weeks from having his appendix removed! He trained a scant 4 days and ran superbly. He really has a team spirit! Luis helped Sean and Alex Torres really did a great job working with Brad to keep our team time gap small. Paul Goslin earned a spot on this team and although he wished he would have felt better, gave all he had. Freshman, Benji Preciado gained great experience this year which will help him in the future. He ran his best Mt SAC time despite the heat!

We all noticed the huge plumes of smoke on our drive home and it turned out that a fire was raging out of control in Yorba Linda. My husband, kitty and I were forced to evacuate as flames rolled over the ridge from Chino Hills State Park and threatened our neighborhood, very scary! Fortunately, we were able to return on Sunday afternoon and our hearts and thoughts go out to those less fortunate.

The best is yet to come for this team! The 2008 edition of the Running Tigers are a special group that cares and supports each other through all the challenges and adversity we have faced this season and we will be ready at the Finals to run our best team effort of the year!

The Varsity team share the 2008 Empire League Championship title with Cypress as the Tigers had a tough day but emerge with just enough to tie! We lost Sean Krinik to an appendectomy, Luis Avellaneda had a fever and chills with the flu, and Jose Gutierrez had dead legs. Fortunately, Brad Cooke and Alex Torres had great races to save the team effort! Jose, Brad and Alex made the Empire All-League team by placing 4th, 6th and 8th. We look forward to CIF Prelims and getting back to full strength!

The Frosh/Soph team was spectacular with Benji Preciado, Cristian Aviles and Jesus Escobar finishing as the top 3 to lead the team to the title. Benji's winning time was a personal best, 16:46! Jordan DeHaven and Matt Ruiz finished in the top ten to complete the scoring. Also recording PR's were: Cristian, Jesus, Matt, Julio Gonzalez, Ivan Jimenez, Jordan Steyer, Moises Gonzalez, Daniel Diaz, Michael Pope, Jonathan Navarrete, Matthew Pope, Jarrett Castillo, Kevin Huang, and Jason Wan.  

The JV team featured Karin Zaldana leading from start to finish to claim the individual title followed by Paul Goslin, Ruben Aguilar, Raul Zapata and Connor McCullough finishing a perfect 1-5! Running best times were: Karin, Connor, Henry Marquez and Gerardo Uribe.

The future looks very bright for the Tigers with so many talented runners returning but the summer will tell! 

The JV team got things rolling at the Mt SAC Invitational at the chipper hour of 7:14 am! Paul Goslin went out aggressive and confident and was rewarded with 7th place and a pretty cool medal too! The JV team went on to place 3rd in their heat with the efforts of Ruben Aguilar 13th, Danny Gonzalez 28th, Josh Rangel 42nd, and Roman Gutierrez in 46th. Danny is starting to challenge himself by running with the front Tiger pack and it was nice to get Daniel McGuigan back into racing flats!

Jose Gutierrez ran his best Mt SAC time by 20 seconds, 15:20, despite our low key approach to this meet! Sean Krinik improved from 17:24 last year, to 15:45 this year, wow! Luis Avellaneda looked totally unstressed in his 16:00 effort. Brad Cooke ran an astounding 16:33 for a first time run on this course! Cristian Lopez ran an encouraging 16:53 for his fourth race cross country race ever! Diego Baiza was a last minute addition to the varsity and stepped up with guts and a personal record time of 16:57! Troy Czegledy was a great pack runner through 2 miles and with rested legs will go the distance when it counts! So lots of positive news on this practice race for CIF. Our team time of 80:31 was 1 second off last years effort and 8th best Mt SAC team time on our all-time list!

The freshman also placed 3rd and were led by 9th placing Benji Preciado. He went out very fast and hung on nicely! Cristian Aviles, Chase Brothers and Gio Ruiz continue to support each other in a close pack. The surprise 5th scorer for the frosh this week was Kevin Lopez! Thien Nghiem keeps moving up through our pack of freshman which is no surprise as he is a consistent hard worker. Jason Wan was amazing on the final downhill off Reservoir Hill, I took a photo, then stood with my mouth open watching him come down the hill with the best form of any Tiger I saw that day. He tied his PR too!

Jesus Escobar looked great all week at practice and it showed in his confident running moving up throughout the race and finishing in 21st. The Sophomore team again this week featured a tiny team time gap between 1st and 5th place of 31 seconds! Jordan DeHaven was 25th, Ivan Jimenez 28th, Jake Perez 39 and much improved, Julio Gonzalez 48th to score for the team. Moises Gonzalez looks ready to move up to that pack next race!

Click on heading for complete results.

Last race for most of the team is November 5th and we will use the remaining week to be ready to go after the Empire League Championship!

Video from Flotrack.org of Team Sweepstakes Race:

Visit Flotrack For More Videos

It was a very successful day at the Orange County Championships! 31 personal records were set by Tiger runners, the Varsity Boys placed 5th, the powerful JV team won their team race, and the freshman and sophomore teams each placed 2nd.

Jose Gutierrez made the All County team by virtue of his 5th place finish overall and was the 4th fastest senior! Sean Krinik had another breakout performance, placing 11th overall which made him the 2nd fastest junior in Orange County! Brad Cooke made the top 25 sophomores and Benji Preciado made the list for top 25 freshman.

In the Varsity race, Jose went with the super fast front pack the entire race and was rewarded with a personal record time of 14:58 which ties for the second fastest time run on this course by Tiger runners! Sean Krinik also PR'd in 15:15 as did our #4 runner, Brad Cooke running 16:16 on his 16th birthday! Luis Avellaneda placed 37th in the race with a 15:49 time and Alex Torres ran a 16:20 as our #5 runner. Troy Czegledy and Ruben Aguilar contributed as our #6 and 7 runners.

The 1st place JV team was an exciting race to watch with so many yellow jerseys in front! Cristian Lopez and Raul Zapata worked together at the front chasing two Newport Beach runners and finished 3rd and 4th in the race. Paul Goslin had a tremendous kick and finished 6th, Diego Baiza and Roman Gutierrez were the final scorers in 11th and 12th place. Cristian, Raul, Diego, Danny Gonzalez, Jaime Organista, Connor McCullough, Shivnay Kumar, Bryan Escalante, Brian Tsu and Gerardo Uribe all ran personal best times!

The freshman also used pack running to help them to second place led by 7th place, Benji Preciado. Chase Brothers was 11th, Cristian Aviles 13th, Gio Ruiz 16th and Angel Guzman 42nd. Cristian and Gio really stepped up this week closing the gap with our top freshman. Every single freshman ran a PR, wow! The above runners PR'd plus, Kevin Lopez, Thien Nghiem, Matthew Pope, Jarrett Castillo, Ryan Vazquez, and Jason Wan, congrats all!

The sophomore race featured smart pack running but also noticeable was the way the Tigers were moving up with each mile. Jake Perez was our top finisher in 13th followed by Jordan DeHaven in 15th, Ivan  Jimenez 23rd, Jesus Escobar 25th and Julio Gonzalez was 29th. score. All of the above runners ran best times plus, Moises Gonzalez, and Jordan Steyer too. 

Runners of the Week: Jose Gutierrez, Sean Krinik, Brad Cooke, Cristian Lopez, Raul Zapata, Jake Perez, Benji Preciado.

Click on heading for more complete results...and enjoy the photos! 

 The Tigers ran like champions on a challenging hot day against strong Empire League competitors! All levels won and eleven athletes recorded best times!

Jose Gutierrez and Sean Krinik went 1-2 for the varsity followed by Luis Avellaneda in 4th, Brad Cooke in 10th, and Alex Torres in 11th for the scoring top 5. Troy Czegledy ran in a nice pack with Brad and Alex and finished 13th as our 6th scorer. Ruben Aguilar struggled with a side-ache but gave it all he had for 27th place. 

The JV race featured Diego Baiza off the front for the win! Cristian Lopez dropped a minute from his best time finishing 2nd with a big kick, Raul Zapata was 3rd also running a best time, Karin Zaldana and Roman Gutierrez were the final scorers in 5th and 6th place. Also running best times were Adrean Gonzalez and Henry Marquez.

Freshman, Benji Preciado, winner of the Frosh/Soph race, continues to improve and always seems to enjoy the challenge of racing! Jordan DeHaven was second passing many with a wicked kick in the final 400 meters. Chase Brothers, Jake Perez and Michael Pope rounded out the scoring in 5th, 7th and 8th. Benji, Jordan, Jake, Ivan Jimenez, Julio Gonzalez, Jonathan Navarrete, an Thien Nghiem all ran PR's on this hot afternoon! 

Athletes of the Meet: Jose Gutierrez, Brad Cooke, Diego Baiza, Benji Preciado 

Great meet and still plenty of season to keep getting stronger! 

It was such a relief to run in the overcast 65 degree morning on the diverse and challenging cross country course of Carbon Canyon after a few weeks of brutal heat! The boys varsity team placed to 2nd place at the Brea Invite and the frosh/soph were 3rd.

Sean Krinik won his race and finished as our fastest runner of the day! The Top 7 this week for the varsity were: Sean Krinik, Jose Gutierrez, Luis Avellaneda, Alex Torres, Ruben Aguilar, Raul Zapata and Paul Goslin. Raul Zapata was impressive in his second race and Gerardo Uribe actually recorded a PR on this tough course!

Top 7 for the frosh/soph were: Troy Czegledy, Brad Cooke, Benji Preciado, Jordan DeHaven, Matt Ruiz, Jake Perez and Chase Brothers. Jesus Escobar, Julio Gonzalez and Thien Nghiem really stepped up and ran personal best times!

Athletes of the Meet: Sean Krinik, Raul Zapata, Benji Preciado, Jesus Escobar, Jake Perez.

Next up is our League Challenge on Wednesday at Craig Regional Park.

Congratulations to Jose Gutierrez who led the Tigers to a 3rd place Overall Team placing at the Sunny Hills Invite by winning the senior race with the 3rd fastest time of the day, 15:31! Jose went unopposed from start to finish looking strong and relaxed. Luis Avellaneda finished 5th by moving up through the pack and was the #2 Tiger for the day. Also in the senior race, Karin Zaldana was very tough running a PR as our #3 runner for the seniors followed by newcomer, Raul Zapata who was amazing in his first ever cross country meet as the #4 senior. Danny Gonzalez rounded out the scoring members of the 2nd place team in the Senior division. Congrats also to Gerardo Uribe ran a personal best time.

      The freshman again looked formidable as they claimed 1st place in the Freshman team race! Benji Preciado was the top Tiger in 7th place followed closely by a four pack of Chase Brothers, Matt Ruiz, Gio Ruiz and Angel Guzman. Running PR's were: Gio Ruiz, Thien Nguyen and Jason Wan.

      Sean Krinik placed 5th to lead the Juniors to 3rd place in a very competitive race featuring some of the fastest times of the day. Ruben Aguilar finished in 28th with a very good time for him and Connor McCullough continues to record breakthroughs running a PR and placing 43rd. Josh Rangel and Diego Baiza were the 4th and 5th scorers for the juniors. Jaime Organista improved his best time this week too.

      The sophomores ran at noon and despite waiting all day and the heat, four runners ran best times: Jake Perez, Ivan Jimenez, Moises Gonzalez and Julio Gonzalez. Troy Czegledy and Brad Cooke were the top Tigers finishing in 15th and 16th place. Jordan DeHaven, Jake and Ivan were the other top 5 runners for the sophomores who placed 3rd as a team.

Most Improved Runners of the Meet: Karin Zaldan, Connor McCullough, Gio Ruiz, Thien Nguyen, and Jason Wan

The Laguna Hills Invite featured great weather and fierce competition! Congratulations to Jose Gutierrez, Luis Avellaneda and Sean Krinik whose times made the Top 100 for the meet. The seniors led the team competition by placing 1st, the freshman were 3rd, the juniors finished 4th and the sophomores 8th.

The freshman four-pack of Chase Brothers, Benji Preciado, Matthew Ruiz and Cristian Aviles all came home with medals and all finished in the top 25 out of 230 runners in their race! Angel Guzman, Gio Ruiz and Erik Ferman rounded out top 7.

Sophomores were led by Brad Cooke and Troy Czegledy, both running personal record times finishing 15th and 20th out of 235 runners! Jordan DeHaven made a huge jump from last year as our third best soph, followed by new comers Michael Pope and Ivan Jimenez. Also running PR's were: Jake Perez, Jordan Steyer, Daniel Diaz, and Kevin Huang.

Sean Krinik made a real statement in the junior race with his 3rd place finish! He set a new PR by about a minute from last year! Ruben Aguilar, Josh Rangel and Diego Baiza also showed improvement by setting their own best times as did Connor McCullough, Shivnay Kumar and Henry Marquez.

The senior race was exciting as Jose and Luis ran to the front with Jose finishing 4th and Luis 10th! Both start the season with PR's. The team beat higher ranked Newport Harbor with our sixth man! Alex Torres, Paul Goslin, Karin Zaldana and Daniel Aldama were the other runners of the winning senior team.

The meet was a great start to the season, with valuable experience gained and a good meet to set and reaffirm team and individual goals. Thank you to the Pope's and Mrs. Wan for the post race food provided!