Madera's Jesse Arellano captured first place in the boys' frosh/soph race at the Clovis Invitational.

Photo by: Wendy Alexander

The prelude to the California state meet took place Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno with the top cross country teams from Southern and Northern California converging on the same 3.1 mile course where the state meet will be held in late November.

The boys' format was set up for four races divided into small schools, medium schools, large schools and the championship division, which included Madera and the more elite programs in the state.

Although not having its normal top five runners in the championship race, Madera still managed a fifth place finish behind Jesuit High, Royal High, El Rancho High and Clovis High.

The top finisher for Madera was sophomore Javier Sanchez who placed 18th overall in a time of 16:02, followed by Isai Orea in 34th place and Rocky Richardson with a 43rd place finish with times of 16:22 and 16:31 respectively.

Vicente Velarde and Warren Tucker rounded out the top five finishers for Madera finishing in 53rd and 55th place.

Although a top five finish in a race of this magnitude is quite an accomplishment, two runners who normally race with the varsity team and would have helped the Madera team to a higher finish ran instead in other divisions.

Junior Julio Moreno ran in the junior varsity race and captured first place in a time of 16:41 to lead Madera to the JV team title, while freshman Jesse Arellano ran in the larger school frosh/soph race and took first place in a time of 16:29.

Paul Stanford Paul Stanford is the sports editor for the Madera Tribune. You can contact Paul at 674.8134 ext. 225 or e-mail at pstanford (at) maderatribune.net The Madera Tribune online subscription To subscribe or log on, CLICK HERE. For more information first, CLICK HERE.