Stallions continue CMAC excellence
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
The Madera South Stallions boys cross country team celebrates with the County/Metro Athletic Conference Championship trophy at Woodward Park on Thursday.
The Madera South boys cross country team continued its dominance over the County/Metro Athletic Conference with another conference title, easily overtaking second place Sanger.
After Sanger’s David DeLoera won the race by almost 19 seconds, six Stallions crossed the finish line Thursday at Woodward Park for 20 place points, 29 points better than second place Sanger.
“They did what they were supposed to do,” co-head coach Sky Fierro said. “We’ve had a training plan since June and we’ve stuck to it, for the most part. It’s leading up to next week and, hopefully, the week after that.”
All seven Madera South runners earned All-CMAC honors for finishing in the top 12.
Alejandro Gutierrez and Dylan Devine ran with DeLoera for most of the race before DeLoera took the lead in the last mile.
Gutierrez finished second with a time of 15:53.2 while Devine was nine seconds back in third.
The quartet of Madera South runners ran as a pack for most of the race with each taking their turn at the front of the pack. They finished within eight seconds of each other. Vidal Luna led the pack with a fourth place finish in 16:25.8
Isaac Chavez was four seconds back in fifth and Estevan Medina was a second behind Chavez for sixth to finish out the team scoring.
For good measure, Ulysses Vega was three seconds behind Medina for seventh. Juan Ramirez earned an All-CMAC patch for his 11th place finish.
Most of the season, all eyes have been on the Sanger Apaches’ girls cross country team and they showed why they are considered the team to beat in Div. II with an excellent performance. They had the first three runners across the finish line and four of the top five to easily outdistance Madera South for the CMAC title.
“Sanger is really strong on the girls side,” Fierro said. “We have three seniors and three freshmen. They are all tough and all bought in for each other. They are coming around.”
The Stallions had three of their seven runners earn All-CMAC honors, led by Diana Cortes in seventh place with a time of 19:33.1.
Cortes ran fourth though the first mile and then dropped back to sixth in the second mile before placing seventh, 14 seconds behind sixth.
Jimena Rivera and Milca Martinez ran with each other for most of the race. At the first mile, they were eighth and ninth. Rivera stayed in ninth at the second mile while Martinez dropped to 11th. They held their spots to the end with Rivera placing ninth in 20:10.3 and Martinez five seconds behind in 11th.
Valorie Jimenez placed 14th and Oliva Delacruz was 14 seconds back in 15h place.
Jasmine Chavez and Guisel Santos placed 20th and 21st, respectively.
Both teams advance to next week’s Central Section Championships on Thursday at Woodward Park in the Div. I race. The girls race at 1:30 p.m. while the boys race at 3 p.m.
