2018 Rio Hondo XC Calendar

CIF-State XC Finals
November 24, 2018 @ Woodward Park, Fresno

South Pasadena’s guys took 10th place overall in D4 at the CIF State meet over the 5K Woodward Park course.  The team was led by senior Kai Dettman’s 16:18 finish (23rd).  A little over a minute separated the Tigers’ scoring runners, with junior Sam Clark at 16:37 (48th), and seniors Nicolo Porcu (17:05, 89th), Alekzander Grijalva-Moreno (17:06, 90th), and Francesco Fortunelli (17:24, 119th) combining for a score of 281 points.  Michael Xiong (17:44, 144th) and Benicio Perez (17:55, 155th) rounded out the squad.  La Canada senior Owen Serricchio placed 32nd in a time of 16:27 running as an individual.

In the girls D4 race, La Canada’s Ellaney Matarese ran a 19:39 to take 57th as an individual.

CIF-Southern Section Finals
November 17, 2018 @ Riverside Cross Country Course

At CIF-SS Finals, the South Pas and La Canada girls kicked off competition for the Rio Hondo representatives in Race 6 - D4 girls.  The lady Tigers placed 9th with 271 points and the Spartans placed 15th with 364 points and did not qualify for the CIF state meet as teams (needed to be in top 7).  However, by placing 13th overall in a time of 18:24, La Canada’s Ellaney Matarese qualified as an individual.  La Canada’s remaining scorers were Sarah Auther (18:31, 17th), Jenna Milbrodt (19:08, 44th), Juliette Aslanian (21:37, 149th), and Madison Pirkey (21:49, 154th).  The Tigers were led by frosh Mai Koyama, who had a big improvement over her Prelims time by running 18:48 (31st).  South Pas’ remaining scorers were Elizabeth Bock (19:13, 47th), Lindsey Calva (19:17, 53rd), Sydney Morrow (19:40, 74th), and Lindsay Michels (19:45, 83rd).

Blair’s Asa Brton, running as an individual in the D5 boys race (race 7) had an off day, finishing in 127th place with a time of 18:12.  Also running as an individual, Monrovia’s Alayna Peters improved on her Prelims time to come in at 18:41, good for 20th place in race 8, Girls D3.

Competing in race 9, D4 Boys, South Pas grabbed a spot in the CIF state meet by placing 4th with 179 points. Tiger senior Kai Dettman led with a 15:29 time (11th).  Remaining scorers for South Pas were Alekzander Grijalva-Moreno (16:04, 37th), Nicolo Porcu (16:16, 44th), Sam Clark (16:16, 46th), and Francesco Fortunelli (16:23, 56th).  Although the team didn’t qualify (placing 22nd with 542 points), La Canada’s Owen Serricchio qualified for state as an individual by running a 15:34 and placing 14th.  Other Spartan scorers were: Sheldon Watanabe (17:28, 129th), Max Fan (17:42, 134th), Jaden Milbrodt (17:46, 138th), and Max Bohan Apfeldorf (18:00, 147th).  Results and video links for all Rio Hondo races are below.

CIF-Southern Section Prelims
November 9 and 10, 2018 @ Riverside Cross Country Course

On an extraordinarily windy and dusty November 9, athletes from Rio Hondo’s Division 3 schools Temple City and Monrovia had an extra challenge competing on the 3 mile Riverside course.  Monrovia’s Alayna Peters was the lone Finals qualifier, placing 2nd in the D3 Girls heat 2 race with a time of 18:54 (an impressive 24 second improvement over her 2017 time).  Temple City’s guys and Monrovia’s Roberto Soto competed in D3 boys, heat 2, with Soto placing 36th in a time of 16:40.  The Rams placed 14th as a team with 382 points, two places out of the top 12 Finals qualifiers.  Philycius Tjong paced the team with a 17:07 (58th), followed by scorers Daniel Jong (17:15, 65th), Darren Reyes (17:30, 75th), Derek Lee (18:03, 107th) and Andy Huang (18:07, 110th).

Thankfully, the wind died down a bit on Saturday for the D4 and D5 competitions. On the boys side, South Pasadena competed in D4, heat 1 and easily qualified for Finals with a 5th place finish at 178 points.  Junior Sam Clark paced the Tigers with a 16:09 time, good for 15th place.  Remaining scorers were Porcu (16:14, 17th), Grijalva-Moreno (16:35, 36th), Xiong (17:09, 61st) and Perez (17:18, 69th).  La Canada competed in D4, heat 2 and qualified for Finals in 11th place with 267 points.  Spartan Owen Serricchio had the fastest Rio Hondo athlete time at Prelims, running a 15:33 and placing 4th in the race.  Remaining Spartan scorers were Watanabe (17:04, 59th), and Milbrodt (17:33, 76th), Bohan-Apfeldorf (17:34, 77th), and Fan (17:35, 78th) who exhibited some great pack running.  Blair was represented at CIF by senior Asa Barton, who qualified for Finals by placing 8th in the D5, heat 1 race in a time of 16:53.

On the girls side, all three Rio Hondo squads were seeded into the D4, heat 2 race.  South Pasadena (3rd, 123 pts) and La Canada (8th, 217 pts) both punched their ticket to Finals and San Marino missed out by 7 points (13th, 346).  The Tigers were paced by frosh Sydney Morrow’s 8th place finish in 18:40.  South Pas’ remaining scorers were Bock (19:01, 17th), Koyama (19:12, 18th), Calva (19:32, 27th) and Uriarte (20:35, 62nd).  La Canada’s Ellaney Matarese had the fastest time for all female Rio Hondo athletes at Prelims, running a time of 18:34 and placing 5th.  Spartan Sarah Auther was the next scorer at 18:42 (9th), along with Milbrodt (19:17, 22nd), Pirkey (21:33, 91st) and Aslanian (21:46, 98th).  The Titans were led by Olivia Ruiz (19:59, 39th).  Other San Marino scorers were Balaji (20:09, 47th), Lee (21:24, 88th), Hannan (21:34, 93rd) and Talt (21:35, 94th).  Links to results and video are below.