The first official day of practice was awesome, well attended and great efforts by all!

Trail runs throughout February will set us up for a successful season of racing all the way through May!

Congratulations to Josh Linen who placed 2nd overall at the 2007 Brea 8K road race! Congrats also to the tiger team of Talal Khan, Angel Aguirre, Erik Pacheco and Gema Macias placed 2nd in the team competition! Over 2000 runners participated with most of the Tigers improving their times from the previous year.

Check the photos out and the link for results.

The frosh soph milers got the season going for the Tigers in style against El Dorado by placing in the first 5 positions! Paul Goslin was the winner, followed by Karin Zoldana, Daniel Aldama, Steven Suarez and Diego Baiza. Great efforts by all with some really improved runners from fall cross country like Ruben Aguilar, Roman Gutierrez and Josh Rangel. Kent Woodling, Alex Torres and George Ngo swept the scoring positions in the frosh/soph 800 meter run!

The girls faced good competition with Sarah Garcia placing 3rd in 5:59 for the varsity runners. Gema Macias won the frosh/soph race with a good start of the season time. Lauren Maserjian and Emily Israel begin the season with great times in the 800 meter run, with Lauren placing 3rd in 2:44. Alyssa Lees took off and never looked back, winning the frosh/soph 800, a great event for her!

Varsity boys stretched their legs getting ready for Mile Mania the next day at Brea. Jose Gutierrez looked strong and relaxed leading Talal Khan and the pack through the four laps. Talal won with Jose placing 2nd. Josh Linen, Erick Pacheco and Angel Aguirre took care of business in the varsity 800 meter run, placing 1st through 3rd.

A very good first meet, it was a non-scoring meet but we looked preeeeety good!

Once again the Frosh/Sophs got the boys team off on the right track (no pun intended...) by sweeping the scoring positions led by Paul Goslin running a 5:02 1600 meters! Kent Woodling was 2nd followed by Alex Torres. Kent, Diego Baiza, Roman Gutierrez, George Ngo, Brian Tsu and Ian Merna all ran personal best times!

Nadia Sandoval, Sarah Garcia and Arlin Sandoval worked together in the girls varsity 1600 to take the 1st through 3rd positions. This race was Nadia's first time under 6:00, a 5:54, good job! Gema Macias and Alyssa Lees went 1-2 for the frosh/soph girls.

The Varsity race was won by Josh Linen who was a busy guy, winning the 1600, the 800, the 3200 and running a leg on the 4x400 relay! 2nd place in the 1600 was Jose Gutierrez.

The 800 meter races featured repeat winners, Josh, Paul and Nadia. Paul ran a PR in his effort, as did Arlin, Gema Macias (2nd FS girl), Alyssa, and Marilu Grismer. Karin Zoldana, and Kent Woodling placed 2nd and 3rd for the frohs/soph boys. Angel Aguirre and Talal Khan were 2nd and 3rd for the varsity boys. April Wong PR'd placing 3rd for the varsity girls!

Talal Khan also had a challenging day as he ran and placed 2nd in the 400 meter run, came back to place in the 800, then anchored the 4 x 400 team!

Jose Gutierrez placed behind Josh in the varsity 3200 meter run, Alex Torres won the frosh/soph race and Arlin and Lauren Maserjian scored points for the varsity girls by placing 1st and 2nd.

Many 4x400 teams were put together, it made for exciting races! The frosh/soph team of Paul Goslin, Brian Tsu, Jeremy White and Karin Zoldana placed 1st.

The boys track team at both levels remain undefeated by besting Loara! The boys were led by Talal Khan who won the varsity 1600, 800, and anchoring the 4 x 400. Angel Aguirre was 2nd in the 1600, and won the 3200 while Jose Gutierrez and Erick Pacheco rounded out the scoring in the 3200. Joe Perez ran a personal best time in the varsity 800 meter run!

The FS boys team was by Paul Goslin, Karin Zoldana and Alex Torres with their sweep of the 1600. Karin also won the 800 followed by Alex in 3rd. Kent Woodling and Steven Suarez went 1-3 in the 3200 to help the Tiger effort. Personal records were set by Kent Woodling, Steven Suarez, Michael Turner and Ian Chen in the 1600 meter run. Alex Torres, Michael Turner and Ian Merna ran PR's in the 800 for the FS boys.

The varsity girls team was led by the consistent solid efforts by Sarah Garcia who placed 3rd in the 1600 and the 3200. April Wong scored a point in the 800 meter run as well.

The FS Girls team also remain undefeated in Empire League competition and were led by Gema Macias won the FS 1600 followed by Vicky Ablir in 2nd. Alyssa Lees finished 1st in the 800 with Gema taking 2nd place.

Josh Linen ran a strong solo effort, leading from the end of the first lap through the finish to record a win and a personal record, 9:28.37. The warm temperatures and breeze on the back stretch were factors in the race as well as an unaggressive field of runners. Great racing by Josh, there is a lot left untapped in that event for him!

Earlier, (much earlier :), the same day, 31 runners showed up for an amazing day of training on the trails of Fullerton. An all time high number of athletes chose the Varsity route including many motivated freshman. Most runners improved their training times over the distance. Freshman and first timers on the long varsity route were: Paul Goslin, Kent Woodling, Steven Suarez, Diego Baiza, Ruben Aguilar, and Roman Gutierrez. Varsity leaders were: Jose Gutierrez, Angel Aguirre, Talal Khan, Erick Pacheco, and joined by Alex Torres, Luis Avellaneda, Miguel Diaz, Joe Perez all going long.

Great efforts were recorded in the duel meet with Empire League rivals, Cypress at all levels.

The varsity boys remain undefeated and were helped by the sweep of the 1600 meters by Talal, Josh and Angel. Josh came back to win the 800, Talal was 3rd. Jose Gutierrez won the 3200 with Erick Pacheco placing 2nd.

The FS Boys 1600 was very exciting with Alex Torres getting the race off to a good start but it was Paul Goslin who again came on with a big kick to win the event in his PR, 4:49 and Alex placing 3rd! Also running best times were: Alex, Kent Wooding, Luis Avellaneda, Roman Gutierrez, Michael Turner, Ian Merna and Ian Chen. Karin Zoldana placed 2nd in the 800 and ran his best time, 2:10, Luis was 3rd in that event. Alex Torres won the 3200, a good double for him!

The Varsity Girls 1600 was one of the best duel meet performances in recent years with Nadia, April, Arlin in the 5:40's! Nadia placed 3rd against a very strong Cypress girls team. Aunjel Fullington was 3rd in the 800, good to have her back!

The FS Girls team was led by Lauren Maserjian who won the 800 and was 2nd in the 1600. Alyssa Lees scored in the 1600 and the 800 as well.

The Tigers really took advantage of great weather and tough competition to improve times and place amoung the best in Orange County!

Jose Gutierrez won the FS 3200 meter Championship in his second event of the day! Jose moved up through the pack of 30 top runners to outkick his opponents in the final lap winning with a 9:55 clocking. He also placed 9th in the FS 1600 meter run with a PR of 4:34.

Talal Khan also had a great day in the 3200 as he placed 3rd in the varsity Championship event with a best time of 9:29! He showed a lot of guts and determination fighting off opponents and, with a final "will to win" kick! This was Talal's second event also as he placed 11th in the varsity 1600 meter run with a PR of 4:20.

Josh Linen placed 5th in an exciting Varsity 1600 meter run. Josh moved up nicely by the 3rd lap and positioned himself to go for it, getting outkicked by several others in the last lap running a fine, 4:18. A highlight for Josh was running the 3rd leg of the 4 x 400 relay team with a best relay split time of 51.7! The team placed 7th overall.

Nadia Sandoval and Sarah Garcia had fantastic races in the girls 1600 meter run with Nadia improving her time yet again to 5:40 and Sarah running her best time of the season, 5:41!

Luis Avellaneda ran a personal best 4:46 in the FS 1600, in a picture perfect race where he passed most of the field of 30 in the 3rd lap and finished in 10th place.

Angel Aguirre ran 9:59 in the varsity 3200, not his day as sitting around since 8:00 am was a bit draining! Still, not many can have a bad day and break 10:00!

Other highlights of the meet were: Carter Griffin, 3rd in both the varsity 200 and 400; Wes Fletcher, 5th in the varsitylong jump; Sean Krinik, 3rd in the FS 400; and Brian Blakely, 5th in the FS Discus.

Dyestat photos here, terrific pics of our Tigers!

Five distance runners will go on to CIF Prelims after taking care of business at Empire League Finals!

Josh Linen had a phenomenal meet, winning the 1600, the 800 and the 3200 meter runs! He was voted the Male Athlete of the Meet by unanimous decision.

Talal Khan placed 2nd to Josh in both the 1600 and the 3200 and helped the 4 x 400 relay team to 2nd place and a spot on the starting line at CIF! Talal ran a 52.9 relay split, his best 400 meter relay split. Angel Aguirre will also be running at CIF in the 3200 meter run and Jose Gutierrez will compete in the 1600 meter run. It was a real meet highlight watching Josh, Talal, Angel and Jose go 1-4 in both the 1600 and the 3200 meter runs! Joining the boys, will be Nadia Sandoval who ran a gutsy 3200 run, placing 2nd!

April Wong and Sarah Garcia ran an awesome 1600 Varsity Girls race with both girls running best times, 5:36 and 5:37, good for 6th and 7th place! Emily Israel ran the Varsity girls 800 and gave it her all finishing close to a PR in 2:39. Nadia, Arlin and Sarah looked good in the 3200 with Nadia never backing down and placing 2nd.

The FS Boys 1600 was led by Paul Goslin's 5th place with Alex Torres and Kent Woodling both running best times for their efforts. Alex placed 7th, Kent was 9th, Steven Suarez was 10th, Luis Avellaneda 11th and Diego Baiza 12th. Karin Zoldana was happy and relaxed but ran a fierce 800 placing 2nd with a best time followed closely by Paul Goslin in 3rd place who also PR'd. The FS 3200 featured Alex Torres and a fine kick to finish in 4th place, with Luis Avellaneda coming in 5th place and a PR! Roman Gutierrez was our next finisher with a big PR, 10:56 followed by Josh Rangel (PR), Steven Suarez, Kent Woodling, Ruben Aguilar and Michael Turner.

The FS Girls were very tough and successful in their 1600 and 800 meter races. Lauren Maserjian place 2nd in the 1600 and 4th in the 800 while Alyssa Lees was 3rd in the 1600 and 2nd in the 800. Gema Macias ran a best time in the 1600 and close to her best time in the 800.

Eighteen personal best times were set at the Empire League Prelims and many athletes went on to represent Valencia at the Finals!

For the varsity boys, Personal Records were set by Angel Aguirre, Erick Pacheco and Joe Perez in the 1600 meters. Qualifiers were: Josh, Talal, Angel, Jose, Erick and Nick. In the 800 meters, Jose, Joe Perez and My Nguyen set PR's with Josh, and Talal qualifying.

The FS boys who PR'd in the 1600 were Alex Torres, Steven Suarez, Diego Baiza, Roman Gutierrez, Josh Rangel, Ruben Aguilar, and Chris Meneses with Luis, Paul, Alex, Steven, Kent and Diego qualifying for finals. Karin Zoldana and Paul qualified in the 800 with Karin earning a PR, 2:09 which he later broke at finals with a 2:08!

The Varsity Girls 1600 prelim was highlighted by Nadia Sandoval who ran her best time placing 2nd in her heat, 5:36! April Wong had a big day as well setting an 8 second PR, 5:39. Nadia, April and Sarah Garcia all qualified. Emily Israel and Aunjel qualified in the 800 meters with Emily running her best time.

It was wonderful to see so many run their best when it counted here, at the end of the season!

Josh Linen leads the qualifiers from CIF Prelims to CIF Finals by winning his heat of the 3200 meter run in his record time of 9:19! Running negative splits of 4:46 and 4:33, Josh split the field then  went on to win looking very dominant! Angel Aguirre ran 9:38 to finish in 10th place and will be the first alternate in the 3200, Talal is the 2nd alternate in this event with his 9:39 clocking.

Talal Khan qualified earlier in the day with a fine 1600 meter run, finishing 3rd in his heat and as the 5th fastest qualifier at 4:20. Sophomore, Jose Gutierrez, ran a PR in his heat of the 1600 meters and finished in 28th place overall at 4:33 and gaining experience at the CIF level!

Jon Hamilton will compete in the Shot Put event at CIF Finals after finishing 9th with his best put of 51' 2".

Nadia Sandoval ran tough as usual, never giving up, finishing the Girls 3200 meter run in 12:09. Erin Straughter was 15th place in the Girls 110 Hurdles, Sean Krinik was 29th in the 400 meters with another solid time of 51.96, Kelii Jackson finished in 34th place in the 200 meters and the 4 x 400 team of Kelii, Sean, Josh and Talal was 39th.

Good luck at CIF Finals next Saturday at Cerritos College!

Congratulations to Josh Linen on a phenomenal track season, and a great career at Valencia High School! He leaves as the new school record holder in the 3200 meter run and as a CIF Champion!

Josh placed 14th at the State Meet in Sacramento in the 3200 meter run. He did not run his best time, fighting a cold for two weeks, so 14th of 31 runners was awesome.

We hope to see Josh this summer on our runs and we look forward to watching him at Chico State next year!

Spring Break practices were awesome, fun and well attended, showing the dedication and commitment to be the best! We ran the Hill of Death, Ranger Station, Fullerton trails, a track workout, El Moro Canyon and the beach at Crystal Cove!