Marauders sweep foes at tri-city meet

The figurative baton is passed around town between Porterville’s three high schools for top cross country honors once every few years, it seems.

When Porterville coach Juan Jimenez first took over, his girls claimed second in Valley. Later on, Granite Hills gave the Panthers and Monache fits.

Lately, though, it’s the Marauders’ turn to reign and Wednesday’s tri-city meet verified that all too well.

Monache’s boys and girls convincingly swept both the Panthers and Grizzlies, each of whom sit behind Tulare Union, Tulare Western and Delano in league standings.

“Monache’s girls are the favorite this year,” Jimenez said. “On the boys’ side right now, it’s any man’s race. We’re kind of the underdogs because we’re a young team.”

In preseason scrimmages, the Grizzlies’ boys had their way with both their city counterparts, but this time, Monache got the upper hand behind Jorge Ceballos’ first-place finish at 18:33 for the three-mile course.

The Marauder boys defeated Porterville, 22-39, and Granite, 18-43.

Dustin Sheldon claimed the third spot with a time of 19:07 and Monache placed a runner in the sixth through ninth spots: Vic Hernandez (19:29), Keane Ellis (19:40), Sal Escamilla (19:45) and Anthony Alvarez (19:45).

Porterville’s Josh Beer crossed the line in second with a time of 18:55 while teammate Will Samarin clocked in at 19:16 for fourth place, but the Grizzlies, behind fifth-place Chris Sides (19:17) totaled the lower score over the Panthers, 25-33.

Jose Torres (10th place), Oscar Campos (11th) and Tommy Brumfield (13th) formed the more well-rounded finish, proving top-heavy squads don’t always cut it in cross country.

“All it takes is five good runners and you can do some damage,” Jimenez said.

Despite a student body roughly half the size of Porterville or Monache, Granite coach Chris Ross agreed.

“It only takes seven guys to compete, with five scoring,” he said. “For that reason, schools like McFarland have been able to hang with schools like Clovis. We haven’t had this much success with the varsity boys in a long time.”

Monache’s girls also blew out their competition, winning 18-42 over Porterville and 20-43 over Granite.

The Marauders, led by second-place Kristen Chan (22:13), snagged three of the top four spots including third-overall finisher Analysa Asuncion (22:35) and fourth-place Alysa Alvarez (22:35).

But the Grizzlies placed the top finisher by a solid 45 seconds — Abigail De La Cruz (21:28).

The junior transferred to the east side from Porterville High and began racing this fall when she was discovered running on the treadmill in the school’s gym for hours at a time.

De La Cruz finished just her fourth meet on Wednesday after she was unable to finish the season’s first couple of races due to bouts with bronchial spasms.

“I couldn’t even breathe in all the way and I’ve been doing breathing exercises,” she said while admitting she’s still on medication. “We don’t quit around here. Besides, they got a pill for everything nowadays.”

Ross says De La Cruz, who is expected to play point guard for the Grizzlies’ varsity basketball team this winter, will be headed to the Valley meet on Nov. 19 in Fresno along with the varsity boys’ team.

The Panthers’ Ashlei Esparza (23:21) was the top finisher among the girls at fifth place followed by seventh-place Ivette Romero (23:51).