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Vega and Norton; Murrieta Erupt at Inland Empire Challenge
The universe is definitely aligning for a few bright stars out in the Inland Empire! With a cool, crisp feeling in the air, reminding all that autumn has ascended upon us, Chaparral’s Sierra Vega and La Sierra’s Steven Norton stole the show on the individual stage at Saturday’s Inland Empire Challenge. We knew that this would be the fastest girls’ field assembled yet for this invite, but were surprised that the boys’ races were faster than the field assembled here in 2006. With a course that runs a little slower than what most athletes post the Woodbridge Classic, a strong number threw those numbers off! By the end of the day, the record books were rewritten with many of us admiring the quality of depth in the girls’ races. The star of Vega is the brightest in the Lyra constellation, as that combination of stars must symbolize the meteoric rise of this young sophomore. Albeit, the star of Vega is also the 2nd brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere as Liza Pascuito’s course record of 17:10 remained in tact but just barely as Sierra motored to the lead and never relinquished it to Serrano’s Kauren Tarver. In clocking an impressive 17:15, Vega did shatter Pascuito’s sophomore course record by over 41 seconds. After witnessing her fluid stride that remained in tact the entire race, we’re still wondering how this same girl only ran a 19:52 on this same course in 2006! She has led one of the greatest improvements of any squad in the Southern Section, turning Chaparral into a potential CIF Finalist squad in Division I. With dad having a running background along with her club soccer history, Ms. Vega’s discipline in the classroom (she holds over a 4.0 gpa) has obviously transferred into her training. After running the fastest time of the day at the competitive Mt. Carmel Invite, we’re now anticipating how well her success will translate into November! Many questioned how she would do, but coming from the tough Southwestern League, she responded in fine style with one of the most impressive performances in Riverside County history!As if out of a bad episode of The Honeymooners, everybody was yelling “Norton!” by day’s end, especially Murrieta Valley’s David McCutcheon. McCutcheon and Norton became their own two-man race against a stellar field of athletes. But with about 500 meters to go, Norton kicked it into another gear (well, perhaps two gears!) and simply looked just like he did in qualifying for the state meet in the 800 meters last spring. Recent message board dialog stated that the course record would remain in tact, but also that Steven Norton’s 14:55 the weekend before was worthy of consideration. Well, Ryan Gamboa’s course record only stood for one year as Norton blazed to a 14:43, gapping 2nd place by an impressive 11 seconds over that final stretch drive. On the team side of things, #1 ranked in California (Div. I), Murrieta Valley’s boys dominated the field in flying to a new course record and outdistancing Upland by an impressive 62 points. This was the largest victory in the seven years of this invitational. After Upland’s outstanding performance in the 2006 affair, many questioned if the Nighthawks had what it took to chase down that course record or if the field was strong enough to push them. The aggressive racing style of Murrieta took over and never looked back as they came in with a 76:06.8 team time and new record. With McCutcheon taking over the pace early, an incredible 32-second gap between their #1 and #6 paved the way. Junior Daniel Knauer raced to a strong 10th place 15:10 finish with four teammates within 16 seconds of him. While, in 2006, Upland was taking 5th place in the fastest California State Meet to date, their overall depth at the lower levels may have been overlooked. Well, their young guns, led by junior Nick Johnson (12th place – 15:16) are ready to take them back to the state meet as they raced home with the San Bernardino County Award for the 3rd year in a row! Upland was in 4th place, back six points, after four runners, but their tremendous depth came through. A 19-second gap between their #2 and #5 provided the Highlanders with 109 points and was just enough to hold off Corona (113) and La Sierra (117). Riverside County’s Corona looks like Upland in regards to youth (#2-#6 are underclassmen) as both will return the majority of their squads here for 2008. Corona has progressed nicely and ran over two minutes faster here than they did in 2006. Raul Arcos leads this squad (7th place-15:07) but they have been ignited by freshman Michael Gauger (18th place-15:25) who set a new freshman course record (also held by Gamboa from 2003) here while sophomore Alan Cuevas posted a 15:34 (3rd fastest sophomore of the day). In the closest team race for a trophy in this invite’s history, many had dismissed the Eagles of La Sierra when the Knight-era matriculated to UCLA. Those that did should be dismissing themselves at this point. Do not forget how good La Sierra was before the Knight twins enrolled at La Sierra as their best team to date was recorded back in 2003. In the “new era,” Steven Norton amazed everybody with his uncanny ability to accelerate with 500 meters to go. Even the humbled McCutcheon was handing out the compliments. Most of us saw Norton ascending to greatness here in 2007 as evidenced by his late season 1:53/4:18 efforts on the oval. But, another member off of La Sierra’s National Champion Distance Medley Squad was junior Jared Drinkard. Jared raced to 14th place 15:18 timing (16:19 in 2006) and was the 5th fastest junior on the day. Rancho Cucamonga and Great Oak also impressed with strong efforts. A 44-second scoring gap turned in by RC (led by CIF Finalist Joey Ruelas) has them running like a CIF Finalist squad. Great Oak pulled a rare feat in that the Wolfpack ran the exact same team time (78:56) at Woodbridge and improved by almost two minutes on this course from last year! They were led by a surprising 15:06 effort from junior Kyle Dickerson. While in 2006, only four squads broke 80:00 on this course – here in 2007, six squads broke 79:00 with a 7th (Apple Valley) breaking 79:30! Before we stress how well the girls did here, one cannot overlook the success of how well the boys’ squad performed here in 2007.Moving to highlight the incredible Inland Empire girls of 2007, Redlands High (ranked #2 in California-Div. I) was able to hold off a fast charging Murrieta Valley (ranked #4 in Div. I) group with a 70-78 victory. In an epic team battle, this was the Terriers’ 5th consecutive weekend of bringing home a 1st Place Award. Meanwhile, Serrano and Great Oak were also right there at 87 and 88 points respectively. With the top four teams running below 92 minutes, only 41 seconds separated the four-team times! To put things in perspective, only one girl had broken 18:10 on this course over the past two seasons. Here, in 2007, we witnessed 13 in the Sweepstakes Race alone while three more did it in the other varsity races! Same course and basically the same conditions but the level of competition has increased that much! Great Oak, the 2006 Sweepstakes winner, ran over 90 seconds faster as a team but walked home with a 4th place finish here in 2007. Eight of the 11 fastest Girls’ Senior marks (four of the top five) were set along with three of the fastest five Junior marks. Five of the Top Ten Freshman marks were set, including a new freshman course record set by Serrano’s Jessica Feuerstine. Redlands girls came out of the summer blasting away with success at the early September invitationals. But, as strong as Redlands looked at Saturday, when inspecting their team closer, they had several off days from a couple of veterans while their two freshmen, Robin Arnold (5th place - 17:52.5) and Megan Crowley (18:26.1) carried them on this day. Redlands, known for a strong scoring gap, expanded out to 42 seconds, which is still impressive, but not indicative of what had been achieving. Meanwhile, some overlooked the fact that Murrieta’s Taryn Pastoor had only run one race up to this point as she assumed her familiar role as Murrieta’s #1 on this day. Although some would be disappointed with her 8th place finish, she ran 18 seconds faster than she had previously on this course. Freshman Amanda Reynolds impressed with an 18:26 effort as MV ran almost three minutes faster here than they did in 2006!!! After three scorers, Serrano was actually in 1st place here. But, Redlands and Murrieta’s depth prevailed as Serrano edged Great Oak for the 3rd place trophy. Serrano’s Feuerstine actually may be the biggest story here as her 17:51 was a huge surprise to Serrano head coach Ken Quinn. For the early part of the season, fellow freshman Dani Henry was the one up front with Kauren Tarver. Could Serrano posses the best trio in CIF (up there with Saugus)? Meanwhile, 5th place Corona has been keeping the faith without 2nd Team All-State Ashley Evans. Evans was the winner here for Riverside County the past two seasons but has watched her fellow teammates continue to improve. Malaysia Alexander was the #1 junior girl on this day with a 10th place 18:05 clocking. They ran over 90 seconds faster here than in 2006, even with Evans in there. We knew we had a fast day on hand with Norco senior Caitlin Villarreal threw down a 17:50 victory in the Div. II/III Varsity race! Hands down, this was the most competitive year yet with five of the top twelve team times taking place in the Sweepstakes Race!Only the heavens know what will become of the Inland Empire stars this November. More competitive than ever before, a good number of squads have their sights on CIF Finals and State Meet berths. With the area continuing to grow and new high schools sprouting up, the competition is only going to get better. Norton and Vega put themselves up there with some of the best in the state with their individual performances while the top four girls’ squads displayed why they will right there in a month competing for those seven coveted state meet berths from Division I. Murrieta Valley’s continue to support their rankings as they are working their way back to the state meet like they did from 2002 to 2005. Top Boys’ Team Times – Inland Empire Challenge2007 Murrieta Valley 76:06.82006 Upland 76:15.22006 La Sierra 77:04.3 2005 Murrieta Valley 77:12.2 2003 Don Lugo 77:40.2 2004 Don Lugo 77:46.0 2007 La Sierra 77:46.5 2005 Upland 77:55.2 2007 Upland 77:55.8 2002 Murrieta Valley 77: 56.3 2007 Corona 78:06.5 2006 Vista Murrieta 78:07.6 Top Girls’ Team Times – Inland Empire Challenge2003 Murrieta Valley 90:49.02002 Sultana 91:09.4 2007 Redlands 91:15.1 2007 Murrieta Valley 91:34.32002 Murrieta Valley 91:41.02007 Serrano 91:53.7 2007 Great Oak 91:55.8 2003 Sultana 92:40.5 2006 Great Oak 93:30.6 2004 Murrieta Valley 93:37.1 2006 Redlands 93:43.6 2007 Corona 93:44.7
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