Photo courtesy of Maderacoyotes.com/Special to the Madera Tribune Madera's Benny Madrigal, left, is locked in battle with Tehachapi's Brandon Rodney at the Grand Masters Cross Country Meet. Madrigal went on to claim the individual title leading the Coyotes to the championship.

Photo courtesy of Maderacoyotes.com/Special to the Madera Tribune Madera senior Monica Felix breaking away from the pack and placing seventh overall helping the Lady Coyotes to a second place finish at the Grand Masters.

Although the Grand Masters Cross Country Meet is generally not assigned a tremendous amount of importance except as a dress rehearsal the week before the State Meet, Thursday's race at Woodward Park became personal for the Madera boys cross country team.

Despite being ranked in the top five teams in the state for virtually the entire season, a subpar performance in winning their second consecutive Valley championship was all the fuel the state running pundits needed to drop the Madera team all the way down to number twelve in the state.

"I told the boys prior to the race that the new rankings were out and they had dropped from fifth to twelfth in the state," said Madera assistant coach Jen Gaviola. "I think this really motivated them to go out and prove that one race does not make a season."

As a result, the boys team took to the 3.1 mile Woodward Park course with a definite purpose-to send a message to any doubters that they are still going to be a force and challenge for a top five finish at the State Meet.

Winning the Grand Masters in dominating fashion was secondary to the team running some times that would serve to silence the critics and, given the fact that three of the top five Madera runners ran season best times, it would be fair to say that they are laying claim to their spot as one of the state's elite teams.

As he had done in the Valley Championship, Madera junior Benny Madrigal won the individual title while running an impressive time of 15:51. Finishing in sixth place with a time of 16:22 was Claudio Moreno who. despite finishing strong, went out slower than as is his usual style. Showing his senior experience, Augie Hernandez turned in spectacular performance by placing 11th with a personal best time of 16:33-a full 23 seconds better than his previous best. Pedro Perez came in right on Hernandez' heels placing 12th with a time of 16:37 and the biggest surprise came from Nathan Devault who, despite running in the reserve race, had the fifth fastest time for Madera by running a 16:45 which is 19 seconds faster than his previous best.

"This was really a good performance by the boys," said Gaviola. "Even though we trained through this meet and were a little tired, the boys stepped up and were very excited about the times they can run at state with a reduced training regimen this week."

As Clovis and Clovis West elected not to run in the race, the only team who could possibly challenge Madera was McFarland, the top ranked team in the state in Division III. However, the Madera team was far too talented and motivated to even allow McFarland to get even close.

Madera will now enter the State Meet with an even greater purpose and confidence as they are on a mission to validate that rankings mean little until the the state meet is concluded-and they plan to be up on the dais once again ranked where they deserve to be.

In the girls division of the Grand Masters, Madera came in running as well as they have all season after placing second to Buchanan in the Valley Championships.

Interestingly, while the boys had something to prove in this race because of one subpar race, the girls team also had something to prove as many dismissed their performance at Valley as an abberation that they couldn't duplicate.

To underestimate this team is a mistake as they came out and ran with the same intensity in placing second behind a strong Clovis East team and defeating Buchanan who had two runners out with injuries.

Junior Corina James placed fifth overall for the Lady Coyotes while also running a season best time of 19:22 while Monica Felix left no doubt that her personal record set last week at Valley was a sign of better things to come as she placed seventh equaling her time of 19:40.

"Monica is really running well and peaking at the right time," said Gaviola. "I think she is ready to run another personal record at state."

Freshman Tandisha Nious-Flores, while not equaling her personal best ran at Valley, nonetheless came in with another strong performance by running a time of 19:45 and placing eighth overall.

Muriel Lopez and Daisy Uribe placed fourth and fifth in terms of the Madera runners and one of these girls will have to step up next week at the State Meet to give Madera a shot at a top ten placing.

The wild card for the team is the status of junior Vanessa Rodriguez who is among the most talented runners on the team but was held out of the Grand Masters meet in order to recover from nagging injuries that have plagued her this season.

"The girls are running strong and with a lot of confidence right now," said Gaviola. "If Vanessa runs up to her capability, I think we can definitely challenge for a top ten state placing."

The California State Cross Country Meet will be held on Saturday, Nov 29 at Woodward Park in Fresno beginning at 8 AM.

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.