CVHS cross country teams competed this past weekend, Oct. 23-24, in the Mt. SAC invitational meet where over 300 teams ran in the largest cross country contest in the country. Teams from California, Arizona and Nevada ran in over 118 individual races for the varsity, JV, soph and frosh categories for both boys and girls. Fifty eight of the 100 California state ranked teams were competing in sweepstakes races. Nine of the states’ top 10 ranked teams (in their respective divisions) ran the three mile course in mid-90s temperature that was cooler than years past. The race is a midseason event that starts the countdown to the upcoming league finals and CIF prelims and finals.

The CV girls varsity finished second in the Division 1 varsity green race with 117 points behind winner Vista Murrieta with 96 points. Junior Claudia Pham led the Falcons with a third place overall finish at 18:23 with only 1:03 separating her from Falcon fifth position runner Anneke Kakebeen who finished in 35th place overall, showing a remarkable pack run by the top five finishers. Sophomore Brooke Moultrie continued to show improvement over last year by besting her 2008 race time by 1:08. Sophomore Ali Johnson and freshman Cali King filled in the third and fourth places for the Falcons. Seniors Eliza Collison and Carli Opland completed the line up for CV in the sixth and seventh position team finishes. The boys varsity finished twentieth (423 pts) in the Division 1 varsity blue race which was taken by Valley View High School with 149 points. Sophomore Mike Duncan led the Falcons followed by Josh Carlos, Bob Anderson, Jordan Miller and Dylan Devens.

“We were a little shorthanded,” said head CC coach Mark Evans, “with some runners injured or out sick. We were missing two of our key guys so as a team we didn’t do so well but as individuals we had had some very good performances. Mike [Duncan] and Josh [Carlos] ran especially well. Mike was the tenth fastest sophomore in the entire competition.” The boys soph race saw CV take eleventh place in their heat with 271 points behind winner Great Oak HS with 93 points. Representing CV, in their respective finishes, were Adam Akopyan, Jacob Smith, Thom Gustovich, Brandon Baum, Mike Jaramillo, Josh Straschewski, Eduardo Herrera, Matt Williams and John Meier. The girls soph team could not bring enough healthy runners to the meet this year and there were no JV races for CV’s division.

The girls frosh team finished tenth in their race with 232 points behind first place winner King HS with 100 points. Amber Zadravecz, Maddy Gabor, Erin Quiambao, Mithra Bhadha, Jenna Scroeder, Beth Anderson, Emily Alcorace, Joelle Martinez and Amelia Palacios ran for the Falcons.

The boys frosh event had Eduardo Menedez, Asbed Sarkissian, Brendan O’Rourke, Andri Kavanagh and Keenan Shur run themselves into a ninth place finish with 252 points in a race won by Great Oak HS with 39 points. “The (varsity) girls came close to Vista Murrieta and beat a lot of the teams we wanted to,” said Evans. “The illnesses and injuries didn’t help us this time out but all

our squads keep improving with each event and we look forward to the league and CIF finals in the next four weeks or so.