Summer Car Wash is a Monster Success
With the goal of bringing in over $5000, we easily achieved that in raising over $6600!  With some of these funds going towards some of the athletes' trips along with prizes, the program still brought in over $5200!  

For the second year in a row, junior Lauren Cochran sold the most tickets!  With her selling 70 tickets - she wins the Ipod Touch.  Senior Aubrey LeAnce takes 2nd place and is rewarded with an Ipod Nano as she sold 54 tickets!   Great, great job girls!  Others that went above and beyond...

Hannah Smith - 37 tickets
Jimmy Gauger - 33 tickets
Michael Gauger - 33 tickets
Kristina Jurdi - 26 tickets
Brandon Smithson - 25 tickets
Ryan Fierro - 20 tickets
Amber Withrow - 19 tickets

Great job folks as we do understand that many of the tickets sold were 'donations.'  We now turn our attention towards having the parents sell the raffle tickets sponsored by the Irvine Rotary Club and Woodbridge Classic.  The team receives $4 for every raffle $5 raffle ticket we sell.  These tickets put you into a drawing for a week for two in Hawaii, including airfare!   So, our goal is to sell 500 tickets which would bring in an additional $2000.  But, our students are not allowed to sell them due to the nature of it being a raffle.

TIME TRIAL RESULTS
We witnessed some great efforts Friday morning for our July Time Trial at Butterfield Park.  Some of our younger boys have really stepped it up while it was great to see such a nice gap with our top girls.  This is the same 2.4 mile course that we used for our Annual Red and Gold Meet, so it was nice to see so many of our returning athletes race faster in late July than they were in early September last year.  We saw 11 girls (Haley Brzycki sat out) break 18:00 minutes, while last year in September - we only saw nine!  Our new athletes ran a 1.2 mile version of our home course.  (we're still working to finalize and correct some of the results.)  For images from this Friday's time trial and our Mt. SAC workout from the previous weekend - please go to http://flickr.com/photos/mg_dad/

Returning Boys 
Michael Gauger (11) 12:18  new course record
Fernando Cerda (12) 12:53
Alan Cuevas (12) 12:56
Jimmy Gauger (10) 13:12
Garrett Williams (10) 13:15
Julian Hernandez (10) 13:28
Lorenzo Marquez (12) 14:00
Angel Pineda (12) 14:07
Antonio Garcia (11) 14:12
Michael Sveinson (11) 14:18
Stratton Lee (10) 14:21
Rasitlin Hale (10) 14:26
Jonathan Erickson (11) 14:27
Julian Semaan (11) 14:30
Scott Davis (10) 14:30
Ryan Badaraco (12) 14:53
Ryan Fierro (10) 14:53
Tom Fitch (12) 15:21
Jeremiah Blackburn (11) 15:21
Cesar Brodowski (11) 15:53
Eduardo Cerda (10) 16:02
Tony Guzman (11) 16:08
Faran Imani (11) 17:12
Jeremiah Bell (10) 17:31

Returning Girls
Nikki Blokzyl (10) 16:27
Alexxis Martin (11) 16:30
Lauren Cochran (11) 16:34
Nathalie Aguilar (10) 16:37
Suzanna Aguilar (10) 16:40
Desirae Santana (10) 16:55
Amanda Grooters (11) 17:27
Hannah Smith (10) 17:28
Kristina Jurdi (10) 17:35
Marlene Ramirez (11) 17:43
Megan Cordova (10) 17:51
Rachel Torres (10) 18:49
Angelica Castagna (12) 18:53
Sarah Patterson (11) 18:59
Raeanna Smith (10) 19:03
Gloria Cruz (10) 19:08
Isabel Cruz (12) 24:03

New Boys
Jose Garcia (12) 6:48
John Spatter (10) 6:55
David Aguilar (9) 6:57
Royce Bethel (12) 7:04
Oscar Gudino (10) 7:09
Humberto Rodriguez (12) 7:11
Alfredo Perez (10) 7:12
Fernando Sencion (12) 7:19
Josh Soler (9) 7:21
Russell Sedillo (12) 7:23
Leonardo Rivera (10) 7:26
Glenn Cochran (9) 7:26
Brandon Smithson (9) 7:35
Freddy Avila (9) 7:35
Daniel Araujo (11) 7:38
Paul Araujo (9) 7:38
Matt Blevin (10) 7:47
Kendrick Delvalle (10) 8:13
Alex Flores (9) 8:36
Blake Smart (9) 8:37
Ubaldo Deltorre (9) 9:00
Nafis Bethel (9) 10:18 

New Girls
Julia Vasquez (9) 7:53
Brianna Sveinson (9) 8:14
Julie Murakami (11) 8:49
Alli Allevato (9) 8:55
Madeline Aguilar (9) 9:08
Alicia Heredia (9) 9:09
Christina Ramirez (11) 9:16
Kristen Wilson (9) 9:21
Christina Wilson (11) 9:55
Monica Walsh (9) 9:58
Adrianna Castillo (9) 10:01
Anayeli Lopez (9) 10:23
Nazzi Nekoomanesh (9)  10:34
Christine Wilson (11) 10:34
Michelle Hinojosa (12) 11:17
Angelica Salazar (9)  11:35
Prisilla Alvarez (12) 12:38 

Running Times: Part 1 from CoachJayJohnson on Vimeo.

As we've been doing for awhile, we want to continue to emphasize core strength and working to decrease injury.   Look to these videos to assist you while some of these drills will look very familiar.  Don't just watch it - do it! 

Running Times: Part 2 from CoachJayJohnson on Vimeo.

Running Times: Part 3 from CoachJayJohnson on Vimeo.

With some awesome weather and a slight breeze, we brought the Inaugural Big VIII League Finals back to Mountain Gate Park, here in Corona!  With all four of our squads locked in 1st or 2nd place, each race was for the league title.  In the end, we walked away with two league titles while finishing solid 2nd places in the other two.   

The JV Girls kicked things off with a bang!  Onlookers saw the first two girls coming across the line with King uniforms, but WOW - a sea of red blanketed the landscape from there!  Seven of the next eight finishers were from Corona.  Reyna Gutierrez put together her best race of the year (19:59) but was barely outleaned at the finish and settled for 3rd place.  With a more conservative start, April Lawson ran an awesome last 800 meters to outlast teammate Christina Ledesma for that 4th place spot.  In 6th place was Aubrey LeAnce as even though she won this race three weeks ago, she still ran a faster time.  In the end, our girls came through with their 6th straight league title!   The reality is that we have one of the best "B" squads in the county, if not, the 2nd best to only Great Oak from Temecula.  A very nice showing as EVERY girl ran faster than they did on the same course three weeks earlier!

Unfortunately, the Boys JV race was a mirror in contrast.  While our JV Girls are outstanding, King's JV Boys are the equivalent!  They had three boys break 17:00 minutes on this course while our boys gave it everything they had.  Garrett Williams finished in 4th place while Lorenzo Marquez finished in 7th.  Julian Hernandez and Julian Semaan showed some awesome improvement from last time around and also finished in the top 11.  We had some other of our younger studs improve as well as you'll see in checking the team results attached below.  But, humbled and gracious - our hats are off to the overall depth that ML King's boys possess.  They will definately be a force to reckon with in 2009 and beyond....

This may be our best Girls Varsity team yet but, wow - ML King's girls are just loaded with talent!  With all seven of their girls finishing in the top 14 and four in the top seven, our girls gave it a ride and went for it!  We cannot be more proud as they improved by almost two minutes from this same course three weeks earlier.  Haley Bryzcki and Ashley Evans finished 3rd and 4th respectively, both breaking 18:35!  This is Evans' 4th straight 1st-Team All-League award.  Malaysia Alexander, with an incredible kick the last 200 meters, fell just short but finished a solid 8th place. (4th straight all-league distinction).  Brieanna Pantele ran her best race thus far as she improved by a minute from last time!  She earned a 2nd Team All-League patch for the 3rd straight season.  Desirae Santana, Alexxis Martin and Lauren Cochran all ran awesome, breaking 19:50 on this course while ALL seven girls improved.  We are so proud of these girls as they actually moved up in the CIF Rankings due to their strong effort.  In the old Mountain View League, we would have had five girls in the top seven and seven in the top nine!  In our first meet with ML King, they would have beat us 19-42 (dual meet scoring).  This time around, it would have been 24-34!  So, we have definately come a long way and really improved.  But, all the respect has to go to ML King's girls as they are one of the most successful programs in the Southern Section over the past 8-9 seasons (eight straight league titles and CIF Finals every year since 2002). 

Topping the day off was the dominating performance by our Varsity Boys.  With the plan to be more aggressive on that first mile, our boys threw off the rest of the competition and basically had the race (and league title) in their hands halfway through the race!  With ML King shooting for the upset against us, Michael Gauger took a proactive approach early in the race and lost everybody except for Jonathan Lopez from Roosevelt.  Lopez was able to outlast him the last mile but Michael earned his 2nd 1st Team All-League patch for his 2nd place effort.  The real surprise of the league was our own Patrick Mynes!  Improving by a whopping 30 seconds from his last time on this course, he finished a close 3rd place to Michael.  This was Patrick's 3rd straight 1st Team All-League patch!  Halfway through the race, we had our top six boys ahead of ML King's #2!  The hard first mile may have led us fading slightly the last 800 meters, but Alan Cuevas and Chase Williams finished an impressive 8th and 9th place.  Cuevas had not trained in two weeks and is still fighting a nagging hip ailment.  To show how much of a stud he is, he still ran 15:40 in a very competive league.  Fernando Cerda was an absolute stud this day as he was ahead of Williams for the first half of the race!  Unfortunately, a severe case of anemia hit him over the latter part of the race and he fell from 11th place to 22nd place, all in the last 600 meters.   He assures us that he is fine and will be back!  But, Franklin Sloat was there to earn a 2nd team All-League patch as well with a strong 13th place finish and his best race this season!  Finally, despite fighting a lingering chest cold, Jimmy Gauger also ran a solid race finishing 21st for the entire league and beating most teams' #3 athlete!  This was the Boys' 6th straight league title!   Patrick Mynes is one of the few athletes in school history to earn FOUR LEAGUE TITLES!

More to come but please download the overall results below and you can see how much our athletes improved!  We really want to thank all of the parents and alumni that came to support us!       

We are extremely proud of how hard our athletes have worked in the classroom these first nine weeks of the 2008-2009 year!    We're seeing some impressive numbers here as one of our major goals for these athletes to work their way to college and earn a degree!   Below you will notice that five students earned a 4.5 gpa with all being from the Class of 2011!   April Lawson earned a 4.67 with straight A's including four AP and/or Honors courses!  Great job to everybody! 

72% earned a 3.0 grade point average or above!

51% earned a 3.5 grade point average or above!

21% earned a 4.0 grade point average or above! 

4.5 or above = Jeremiah Blackburn, Lauren Cochran, Michael Gauger, April Lawson, Brad Sharpe

With the sun coming up and races beginning at 7 am for the Division II schools, we had our top 14 boys entered in the morning Sweepstakes races.  Running on tired legs and giving everything they had, every single boy posted a new personal best for the Mt. SAC course!   But, in the span of several hours and the thermometer rising up over 90 degrees - things got real ugly pretty dang fast!  With bodies (from a host of other schools) passing out and falling on the side of the course, the emergency staff was pushed to the brink to where they had to shorten all races to less than two miles for all Div. I girls freshman and all sophomore amd JV races.  With many athletes disappointed, others elated, it just flat out took a toll on everybody (very similiar to the 2006 invite).   

In the end, our girls team claimed it's first 1st place award in six seasons with our Girls Sophomores running their hearts out and claiming a pretty easy victory.  Meanwhile, our Girls Freshman brought home a 3rd place award along with our Varsity girls!  This is the first time in school history our girls have claimed three separate awards at this invite, which is the largest and most competitive in the nation!  Haley Bryzcki, with a huge surge the last 500 meters, raced to the front to finish a close 2nd in her race. 

Meanwhile, our varsity boys ran in, perhaps, the fastest race in the nation on Saturday!  Taking precautions, we sat out Alan Cuevas to continue to let him heal.  In the end, we still managed to finish ahead of several teams ranked in the top 10 in the state for Division I!  With Alan in there, we would have taken 7th place, behind six of the top eight teams in the entire state!  They all admitted that a hard week of training had zapped them that last mile, but that was the plan since our team camp in August.  Out of the ten races our boys will compete in this season, this was ranked #5 in prioritizing which races mean the most.  Michael Gauger set a new sophomore school record and will definately shoot for the overall school record in three weeks at CIF Prelims while he is also the first athletes in CXC history to break 15:45 four different times!  Meanwhile, Jimmy Gauger ran one of the fastest times in school history for a freshman.    The best thing that came out of this day for the boys was Fernando Cerda's 16:29.  Last year, he only went 17:26 here and he truly stepped it up! 

I'm so proud of our athletes and their attitudes towards the conditions and tribulations that were presented on Saturday.  From getting athletes there at 7:30 am to athletes being thoroughly disappointed with their race being cancelled at 3:40 pm - I saw great teamwork, great support from parents and athletes alike and felt that everybody gave an awesome effort!   

We take back seven boys and seven girls to Mt. SAC for CIF Prelims on November 15th! 

This past Thursday - we held  our 1.5 Mile Time Trial. 

We knew that we had four boys that could break 8:00, but wow.....!  Four boys broke 7:50, and since 2001, four of the top seven efforts were posted in this same race!  Michael Gauger's 7:36 led the way, but following closely was Alan Cuevas' 7:43, Patrick Mynes' 7:46 and Chase Williams' 7:47!  We had nine boys break 8:30, and for the first time, two freshmen did it in the same race!  Jimmy Gauger and Garrett Williams will be an awesome 1-2 punch as 9th graders this upcoming season.  Meanwhile, the greatest improvement again was Jonathan Erickson.  Jonathan posted an 11:13 at this trial last year and went 9:12!  Lorenzo Marquez also improved from a 9:34 to an 8:32!  

On the girls' side, between Ashley Evans sitting this one out to heal her knee and Nathalie Aguilar twisting her ankle on the 2nd lap, it was a tough ride.  But, freshman Haley Brzycki is the real deal as she came across the line first in a very nice time of 9:43!  Seniors Reyna Gutierrez and Malaysia Alexander were right there as well.  We saw some awesome improvement from Alexxis Martin and Lauren Cochran to round out the top five.  Alexxis improved by 35 seconds compared to last summer!  When breaking down our girls' team, we have 14 girls breaking 10:20 at this point in the season! 

We'll post complete results soon...

My lord! When our athletes and parents set their minds to something.....folks, we raised almost $7000 at our annual July Car Wash.  Led by Lauren Cochran's 75 tickets sold and backed up by Malaysia Alexander's 66 tickets, those two brought in $705 all by themselves.  The big sis-lil sis combo worked out VERY well to say the least.  Freshman Jimmy Gauger led the boys by selling 47 tickets, bringing in $235 all by himself! 

Several athletes basically paid for both the Morro Bay and Clovis Invites through this fundraiser while most reduced the overall cost of the trips. 

We cannot even begin to properly say Thank You to the hard work from our Parent Booster Club.  From John Mynes organizing the whole event, to Ron Fitch busting his rear (teaching kids out to properly wash cars), to all of the other parents that chipped in!  Simply an awesome team effort....

As of last week, we thought that bringing in $5000 was a reasonable expectation....nope = $7000!    Great, great job! 

The 4th Annual Red and Gold Meet was another display of teamwork and creativeness on the part of the Corona Cross Country athletes!  Held at Butterfield Park and on the "new" course, temperatures were still in the low 90's while it was very humid - obviously not the ideal conditions for a race!  But, great times had by all as everybody walked away with a greater knowledge of the sport and what it takes to win a team race!

"Blue's Clues" team captain Katie Anderson came in with a strong 27th place finish and cemented her team's narrow three-point victory over the "Goldmembers."  Some great racing by sophomore Fernando Cerda and freshman Antonio Garcia were the difference and offset some strong racing from freshman Michael Svienson (Goldmember's #4).   We'll update more soon enough...  

TEAM SCORES:
Blue's Clues = 61
Goldmembers = 64
Cinemas = 82 
Cookie Monsters = 88
Pretty in Pinks = 89
Stingers = 92

Athletes that ran better than they were seeded:
Michael Gauger = seeded #4, finished #2
Joey Casim = seeded #8, finished #6
Fernando Cerda = seeded #15, finished #7 ------> Blue's Clues #2
Ulises Banos = seeded #18, finished #16
Antonio Garcia = seeded #22, finished #13 ------> Blue's Clues #4
Michael Svienson = seeded #24, finished #15
Brieanna Pantele = seeded #25, finished #22
Lauren Cochran = seeded #33, finished #28

Due to the hard work of Booster Club President John Mynes, the Corona High Cross Country program has received a very generous donation from Nestle Corporation, which happens to own Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water!

We have received 180 cases of water, with each case providing 32 bottles each!  Yes - that's a lot - 5,760 bottles of water to be more precise!  It's computes to a donation near $1,200 as it will easily assist us in keeping our athletes properly hydrated all season long!

 Thank you to Nestle Corp. and to Arrowhead Drinking Water! 

Great Job at the Time Trial!!!

We will update you with more information soon enough.  We had some great things take place with eight boys breaking 8:25 and a new school record turned in by Raul Arcos (7:28).  "Boy wonder" Michael Gauger also set a freshman new school record with a solid 8:06.  On the girls' side, this was the first time we had three girls break 9:20....woah, hold on----WAIT!!- we had three girls break 9:00!!!!!   Great day!!!!

SATURDAY'S WORKOUT - 6:30 AM AT THE SKYLINE ROAD GATE!!!!  WHO'S RUNNING TO THE BALL????   

UPDATED BOYS' TOP MARKS 

Raul Arcos (12) 7:28 - 2007 

Daniel Wilcox (12) 7:30 - 2004                                    

Josh Schneider (12) 7:46 - 2002                                   

Cyrus Bastani (12) 7:48 - 2003                                     

Raul Arcos (11) 7:49 - 2006                                        

Eric Larios (10) 7:50 - 2003                                      

Daniel Wilcox (11) 7:55 - 2003      

Ryan Pettersson (12) 7:56 - 2005

Patrick Mynes (11) 7:58 - 2007      

Eric Larios (12) 7:58 - 2005      

Cyrus Bastani (11) 7:58 - 2002      

Luis Moreno (12) 7:59 - 2004      

Jantsen March (11) 8:01 - 2004      

Geron Craig (12) 8:02 - 2005      

Damien Thompson (12) 8:02 - 2006                     

Chris Granger (12) 8:04 - 2002      

Alan Munoz (11) 8:04 - 2005      

Adrian Rivera (12) 8:04 - 2002

Alan Cuevas (10) 8:05 - 2007

Michael Gauger (9) 8:06 - 2007      

Chris Bowden (11)  8:07 - 2001      

Luis Moreno (11) 8:09 - 2003      

Raul Arcos (10) 8:09 - 2005      

Cody Langdale (12) 8:11 - 2006      

Jantsen March (10) 8:11 - 2003      

Jantsen March (12) 8:12 - 2005      

Josh Schneider (10) 8:15 - 2001      

Ricky Nolan (11) 8:15 - 2006 

Josh Verdone (12) 8:16 - 2007     
Francisco Ramirez (12) 8:17 - 2001
        

GIRLS' TOP MARKS

Alma Escobar (11) 8:35 - 2004                                    

Alma Escobar (10) 8:48 - 2003

Ashley Evans (11) 8:51 - 2007

Malaysia Alexander (11) 8:53 - 2007                                     

Ashley Evans (10) 8:55 - 2006          
Natalia Richeri (12) 8:58 - 2007                            

Ashley Evans (9) 9:05 - 2005                                 

Malaysia Alexander (10) - 9:16 - 2006                          

Bianca Aguirre (10) 9:16 - 2004                                   

Bianca Aguirre (11) 9:22 - 2005                                   

Malaysia Alexander (9) 9:22 - 2005                         
Kelley Floyd (10) 9:27 - 2002                                       

Sarah Morris (10) 9:28 - 2003                                       

Bianca Aguirre (12) 9:32 - 2006                                    

Kelley Floyd (12) 9:34 - 2004                                        

Natalia Richeri (11) 9:34 - 2006                                  

Christen Goodman (10) 9:35 - 2002                           

Michelle Beyer (12) 9:39 - 2006

Jossie Munoz (12) 9:40 - 2007                             

Corinna Gutierrez (9) 9:42 - 2006                                

Mandy Garcia (12) 9:43 - 2004                                        

Mandy Garcia (10) 9:43 - 2002                                       

Molly Binns (11) 9:46 - 2001                                               

Michelle Beyer (10) 9:46 - 2004                                          

Sarah Morris (11) 9:47 - 2004

Brieanna Pantele (11) 9:49 - 2007                                         

Mandy Garcia (11) 9:50 - 2003                                         

Crystal Binoeder (12) 9:50 - 2006                                      

Elizabeth Sanchez (11) 9:51 - 2006                            

Michelle Beyer (11) 9:54 - 2005                                                                               

Summer Revisted at Mt. SAC Invite
In one of hottest days ever for the Mt. SAC Invite, over 13,000 athletes endured the heat and dry conditions of Mt. SAC.  It was the complete opposite of the 2005 invite and times were obviously not what most athletes preferred!  Overall, Corona High fared very well as both varsity squads came home with team plaques and a host of individuals earned the highly coveted medals for finishing in the Top 15 for thier race!  The main focus for the varsity squads was to prepare themselves for the CIF Prelims and Finals which are held on the same Mt. SAC course in three weeks!  Their focus was solely on team placing and not individual glory. 

With that in mind, the highlight of the day took place before most athletes had arrived as our girls' varsity attacked the course at 10:40 am. (before the temperatures got into the low 90's).   Our girls finished a close 2nd place in the Individual Sweepstakes Race!  Edison (2005 Div. II State Champs) nipped us by only six points, but our girls walked off the course more confident than ever before.  Due to this performance, they move up from #16 to #8 in the recent CIF Rankings and #11 in California for all Division I schools!  Boasting the best group of sophomores in Riverside County, our girls were led by Ashley Evans.  Despite the heat, Evans ran one of the fastest times in county history in roaring to a 13th place finish in 18:13.  Corona was racing against some of the fastest individuals in California so to finish in the top 15 is very impressive.  Malaysia Alexander continues her surge in running 28 seconds faster than she did in 2005 (19:09).  What is most impressive is that she did it in much tougher conditions than she did last year!  Athlete of the Week Natalia Richeri also set a personal best by going from 20:20 in 2005 to 19:23!  She finished immediately after Alexander to set the nice team score up.  Crystal Binoeder continues to close the gap in the #4 slot while posting a 20 second pr and Brieanna Pantele was the best #5 scorer of any team in the race.  Brieanna went 20:28 in her first race on the full Mt. SAC course.

The boys had a tough race as they ran at 1:00 pm.  Even with an "off day" they still managed to finish 3rd as a team (31 teams entered in the race!!).   Raul Arcos finished with a strong 7th place finish.  Athlete of the Week Cody Langdale posted a new pr on the course in finishing #2 for the team and breaking 17:00.  Corona packed up very well from there on out but running at 1:00 pm and in 90 degree heat got the best of us!  Damien Thompson continues to look like his old self as he went 17:10.  Freshman Alan Cuevas kicked hard to be our #4 in going 17:19 as he is one of the best freshmen in the county.  He will attempt to be the 3rd 9th grader to break 17:00 on the course with the other two being Eric Larios (16:36) and Raul Arcos (16:52).   Our boys' sophomores finished with a strong 5th place finish in their race.  Keep in mind, we had our top two sophomores race with the varsity group.  Joel Garnica ran his best race thus far in leading that group with an 18:12 mark!

BOYS RESULTS
Raul Arcos (11) 16:16
Cody Langdale (12) 16:57
Damien Thompson (12) 17:10
Alan Cuevas (9) 17:19
Patrick Mynes (10) 17:21
Chase Williams (10) 17:26
Ricky Nolan (11) 17:36
Chris Espadas (11) 18:01
Greg Miller (12) 18:02
Joel Garnica (10) 18:12
Logan Shyrock (10) 18:21
Franklin Sloat (10) 18:32
Nate Layman (10) 18:54
Josh Verdone (11) 19:01
Joey Casim (11) 19:16
Zach Eismann (10) 19:29
Fred Palomares (10) 19:59
Robert Fitch (11) 20:01
Humberto Munoz (10) 20:21
Garrett Saunders (10) 20:23
Jose Vazquez (10) 20:44
Daniel Nolan (10) 21:07
Ryan Huerta (12) 22:38

GIRLS RESULTS
Ashley Evans (10) 18:13
Malaysia Alexander (10) 19:09
Natalia Richeri (11) 19:23
Crystal Binoeder (12) 20:14
Brieanna Pantele (10) 20:22
Reyna Gutierrez (10) 20:28
Corinna Gutierrez (9) 21:23
Michelle Beyer (12) 21:37
Aubrey Leance (9) 22:35
Angie Garcia (9) 23:22
Kim Franco (12) 24:26
Kay Torriente (10) 24:40
Teresa Lou (10) 25:13
Alli Haddad (11) 25:48
Alex Rodriguez (10) 27:54
Martine Ganci (11) 29:21
Rebecca Cruz (10) 30:43
Isabel Cruz (9)

All four squads easily ran to victories at our Mountain League match-up against Norco at thieir course.  The #1 priority for our squads was to become acquainted with Norco's new home course, which is the site of the 2006 Mountain View League Finals!  Our girls' varsity has not lost a league dual meet since 2000 and despite "cruising" they still won handily, 23-37.  Ashley Evans moved away from Norco's top two girls with a mile left.  Malaysia Alexander and Natalia Richeri motored to a 4th and 5th place finish.  Freshman Aubrey Leance, in her first varsity race, impressed with an 8th place finish and ahead of Norco's #3 girl.  We were even sitting out three of our top 8 girls to help them prepare for next week's race at Mt. SAC.

Our junior varsity girls continue to dominate as they won, 16-47.  Elizabet Garcia finished 1st, followed closely by Kim Franco and Kay Torriente.  We placed four of our JV girls in front of Norco's #6 athlete. 

In the boys' varsity race, it was considered a "threshold day" and they comfortably ran to victory, 19-42.  Raul Arcos prepared himself for league finals by taking mental pictures of the course and running an impressive 17:06.  Youth will be served as 11 of the next 12 finishers for Corona are underclassmen!  Sophomore Patrick Mynes and Chase Williams both broke 18:00 while freshman Alan Cuevas finished with Damien Thompson ahead of Norco's #2.  We put 16 athletes ahead of Norco's #5 (sitting out two athletes as well). 

Our junior varsity boys won by the greatest margin possible, 15-50.  We finished with the top 14 athletes in the JV race, led by Zach Eismann and Josh Verdone. 

NEXT WEEK:  No weekday racing as we travel to the largest invitational in the nation - the Mt. SAC Invitational!!!!

Corona Sweeps Santiago
In perhaps the toughest competition we will face in the Mountain View League this season, Corona went into our first league meet with the goal of sweeping all four races.  Mission Accomlished!!!  The boys proved why they remain the class of the league (6 of our top 11 are 9th or 10th graders) while despite receiving a scare and surviving several "off" races, our girls walked away with the victory!

Despite losing 8 of our top 13 from 2005, the boys have definately proved that they are not a fluke!  Even with "off" races from Raul Arcos and Damien Thompson, the rest of the TEAM stepped it up as we put five inside the top seven finishers and ran away with a convincing 24-33 victory!  Sophomore Patrick Mynes continues to improve and mature as he was our #2 finisher and finished 4th overall.  Following right behind Mynes and Thompson were seniors Cody Langdale and Greg Miller.  We finished with an incredible 32 second scoring gap while Mynes, Langdale and Miller ran as a tight pack and moved away from Santiago's pack of four during the 2nd half of the race.  Junior Ricky Nolan and fab-freshman Alan Cuevas finished ahead of Santiago's #5 to increase the scoring margin.  In the boys junior varsity, our goal was to set the tone for the day while going after a 1st-5th sweep and a 30 second scoring gap!  If not for a lean at the tape for 5th place, we would have acheived that goal.  In scoring only 16 points (15 is the lowest you can score), sophomores Chase Williams, Logan Shyrock and Zach Eismann made it look easily as they led from the gun to the tape!  Fellow sophomore Joel Garnica continues to look stronger with a 4th place finish while junior Chris Espadas ran a great race and was right there competing for that coveted 5th place.  Williams and Shyrock's times would have placed them right with Santiago's #5 in the varsity race.

On the girls' side, we received a HUGE scare as Corona's girls had a tough day! Meanwhile Santiago's girls impressed and ran very smart races.  Corona still walked away with a 27-30 victory and most likely, we earned a 6th straight league title!  With several girls still healing and others still working their way back to shape, the score was actually tied 18-18 after four scorers!  Ashley Evans led the entire race to a comfortable victory.  Meanwhile, two-time 1st Team All-League Raylene Robles of Santiago ran awesome and got ahead of our own Natalia Richeri.  Richeri held off a fast kicking Hannah Guertin of Santiago for a huge 3rd place finish.  Malaysia Alexander had a tough race but held on for a 6th place finish.  Her finish ahead of a Santiago girl was a huge part in the scoring process!  Corona's depth proved to be the difference as our #7 finished ahead of Santiago's #5 and proved to be the 3 point difference.  Freshman Corinna Gutierrez looked strong and moved up to be our 4th finisher followed closely by her sister Reyna.  Michelle Beyer and Brieanna Pantele rounded out the scoring by all running in front of Santiago's last scorer.  In the girls' junior varsity race, senior Kimberly Franco simply ran awesome in taking 1st place and actually beating Santiago's #6 girl.  But, she was not the only athlete as we placed three other girls (Elizabet Garcia, Katie Anderson and Aubrey Leance in front of their #6).  Our JV girls scored 17 points, after going 1-4 and than a 7th place finish.

We host next Wednesday's meet against Roosevelt.  To claim a true, undefeated league title - Corona must still win their remaining three dual meets along with finishing 1st at the Mountain View League Finals.  Santiago was our biggest competition as we survived and persevered through the adversity of running on Santiago's course and in some tempetures that were in the high 80's...

Great job athletes and parents - we travel to the Kenny Staub Invitational this Saturday.  Our boys will race against Crescenta Valley (ranked #6 in CIF), Arcadia's JV squad (their varsity is ranked #3 in CIF), Loyola (ranked #2 in Div. II) and Barstow (ranked #3 in Div. III).  Meanwhile, our girls (ranked #10 in CIF) will battle against Crescenta Valley (ranked #3 in CIF) and Canyon (ranked #12 in CIF).  It is a smaller invitational that is run in an awesome, spectator friendly park.