Morro Bay Invitational an Awesome Way to Kick off the Season  (complete results below)
We could not think of a better way to end the first week of school and officially kick off the 2007 season for Corona Cross Country!  Through the hard work and organization of the the athletes and parents, we traveled up the beautiful central coast of California and to the incredible backdrop of Morro Bay.  The high school's backyard is literally,....the beach!  The 2.63 mile course presented some awesome picturesque views and some challenging, thick sand for our athletes.  Along with our team dinner on Friday night and an awesome afternoon at the beach after the race, it was the perfect trip and a perfect way to begin this season!  We cannot thank Mr. Mynes and the entire group of parents enough for making this happen - thank you!!!!  We wanted to reward the athletes for a good summer and this was incredible! 

Overall, our squads did very well with many first timers getting a true taste of what Cross Country is and our returners getting a feel for some good competition around them.  The meet does not include any team scoring and no awards.  The award is the trip and the actual running experience itself! 

We have some preliminary numbers to share with you so far.  IF they had scored the meet and combing varsity and JV results from the top 10 squads there, Ventura topped us with 65 points.  Corona would have been a close 2nd with 92 points followed very closely by Atascadero (95) and Los Osos (118).  Malaysia Alexander ran her best race yet as a prep with a smart and well-paced 18:37 effort and 5th place finish.  She was in 20th place at the mile mark and motored by many girls on the beach! In the ansence of Ashley Evans and Jossie Munoz, Brieanna Pantele also ran her best race yet with a 19:02 effort and impressive 10th place finish.  This is a new pr for her and for that, she has earned our Athlete of the Week!  Natalia Richeri continues to race back to her summer form as freshman Christina Ledesma ran awesome in her first race in a Corona uniform.  In the junior varsity girls' race, Lauren Cochran moved from 20th at the mile mark to 7th place and finished with a 6th fastest time of the day for our team!   Team captain Tiffany Akaniro ran a great race while we saw a nice surprise from April Lawson.  Having five freshman girls break 21:00 was nice to see!

TOP GIRLS' TIMES
1. Malaysia Alexander (11) 18:37
2. Brieanna Pantele (11) 19:02
3. Natalia Richeri (12) 19:27
4. Christina Ledesma (9) 19:33
5. Reyna Gutierrez (11) 20:02
6. Lauren Cochran (9) 20:19
7. Katie Anderson (11) 20:22
8. Tiffany Akaniro (12) 21:01
9. Liz Ortiz (9) 21:09
10. Alexxis Martin (9) 21:41
11. April Lawson (9) 21:44
12. Corinna Gutierrez (10) 21:49 
13. Amanda Grooters (9) 22:01
14. Elizabet Garcia (12) 22:42
15. Sarah Patterson (9) 23:24
16. Rachel Ruiz (10) 23:27
17. Alexis Sabala (9) 24:35
18. Aurora Torres (12) 25:59
19. Angelica Castagna (10) 26:13
20. Martine Ganci (12) 30:46 

On the boys' side, it was questionable whether Raul Arcos would race due to his recent injury.  Despite several days off, he went for it anyways and came home with an 8th place finish.  The varsity boys looked awesome but admittingly, went out a little too conservative.  They ran a GREAT race from the 1 mile to 2 mile mark, making up tons of ground but were a little too far back !  In the end, if the meet had been scored - Ventura's #1 ranked squad in California (and top 5 in the USA) would have scored 42 points and Cabrillo (ranked #5 in the state for Division III) with 85 points.  We would have been 3rd with 113 points.   Senior Josh Verdone earned our Athlete of the Week award for his strong 5th place finish in the JV race.  This would have been 5th of our team.   Boy Wonder" Michael Gauger was BY FAR the fastest freshman of the meet with an incredible 15:49.  The next two fastest freshman were at 16:20 and 16:35.  He ran the entire race with Patrick Mynes while sophomore Alan Cuevas also broke 16:00.  This is the first time in recent memory that Corona has had FOUR boys break 16:00 in the same race (yes, even at Woodbridge)!!   Alan was the 2nd fastest sophomore of the entire meet while Patrick was the 4th fastest junior of the meet!!!  Oh, and we another nice stat to share with you; Corona had SEVEN underclassmen break 16:50.  Nationally ranked Ventura had four underclassmen while Cabrillo had three.  Utilizing a tri-meet scoring format, our underclassmen would have scored 31 to Ventura's 44 and Cabrillo's 51 points.  Our boys are focused on becoming a "State Meet" squad and are definately taking strides to become JUST THAT!!!     

TOP BOYS' TIMES (we're still awaiting complete JV results)  
1. Raul Arcos (12) 15:32
2. Michael Gauger (9) 15:49
3. Patrick Mynes (11) 15:51
4. Alan Cuevas (10) 15:58
5. Josh Verdone (12) 16:28
6. Chase Williams (11) 16:33
7. Franklin Sloat (11) 16:40
7. Logan Shryock (11) 16:40
9. Fernando Cerda (10) 16:46
10. Freddy Palomares (11) 17:33
11. Robert Fitch (12) 17:43
12. Lorenzo Marquez (10) 17:56
13. Ulises Banos (10) 18:28
14. Ray Jhala (11) 18:31
15. Michael Sveinson (9) 18:32
16. Antonio Garcia (9) 18:39
17. Alonso Leyva (12) 19:26
18. Thomas Fitch (10) 20:11
19. Casey Langdale (9) 21:41
20. Jonathan Erickson (9) 22:02

 We'll update more ASAP............we promise!!!!