Gonzales paces EHS at Monache Invite

Two miles of non-stop running Thursday afternoon had Allison Gonzales’ face beaded up with sweat and her Exeter uniform drenched as if she had just jumped out of a swimming pool.

The Monarch senior huffed and puffed her way around a pair of twisty miles at Bartlett Park during the Monache Cross Country Invitational ahead of 86 other runners with a time of 12 minutes, 17 seconds.

Gonzales, who has dominated many track meets in the past during her years at Exeter, added another notch to her belt with a first-place finish to her already impressive resume.

“It was nice,” Gonzales said. “We started warming up during the boys (junior varsity) race and I didn’t get to finish my warm up because it went by really fast.”

As Gonzales completed the initial lap, she had already established a sizeable lead with Golden West’s Crystal Gonzalez trailing several paces behind her.

Gonzales displayed her rubber legs and staved off the Trailblazer, who finished as the runner up five seconds behind the EHS senior.

“I usually like to take off on a good pace,” Gonzales said. “I just try to hold it and give it all I can towards the end. I was happy with my performance.”

In the girls category overall, the Monarchs finished in third place with 95 points behind Golden West’s 46 and Tulare Union’s final score of 64. Monache took fourth place with a 120 and Porterville grabbed seventh with a 135.

Katie Pettis, a PHS senior, crossed the finish line three spots behind Gonzales with a time of 6:47.9.

“The course at Bartlett Park is a very fast course,” Pettis said. “It’s a good course to run, especially at the beginning of the season.”

At the end of lap No. 1, Pettis was clinging to a third-place position with Exeter’s Shelby Sutton hot on her trail.

As the runners hit the home stretch, Sutton managed to edge Pettis by five seconds.

“My goal is to be able to keep the second and third place girls in view,” Pettis said, “that way i can get the fourth spot.”

The strategy paid off to perfection.

Monache’s Melissa Hernandez rounded out the top ten with a time of 13:55, one tick behind GWHS’s Ayla Draper and two seconds tardy of Tulare Union’s Haley Tallon and the Trail Blazers’ Laura Qualls, who tied for seventh place.

“It was interesting because I started out really strong and towards the end I got really tired. It was hilly,” Hernandez said. “I was dehydrated towards the very beginning of the race. I was already tired. Besides that, everything was good.”

In the boys division, Golden West ran away with 53 points and a first-place finish followed by Tulare Western with a 61 and Redwood with a 78.

Exeter took fourth place with 158 points, Lindsay grabbed sixth with a 205, Monache finished eighth with a 238 and Porterville took 10th with a 251.

Out of 116 competitors, Christian Gonzales — Allison’s younger brother — crossed the finish line in fourth place with a time of 10:28, .05 seconds behind Redwood’s Justin Vilhouse.

“I think I ran the first mile pretty slow and I didn’t put myself in the right position, but I’m pretty satisfied,” the younger Gonzales said. “I took the first mile too slow and I had to make up for it. I’m still trying to get that down.”

The final 30 yards was an all-out battle between Gonzales and Vilhouse with both runners darting to the end, but it was the smaller Ranger who squeaked ahead to grab third place.

“I was pretty tired. I was trying to catch up with (Vilhouse),” said the freshman Gonzales. “I think I could have caught him if I would have kicked sooner.”

The Panthers’ senior Seth Bowser managed a ninth-place slot with a time of 10:44.

“I ran a really hard practice (Wednesday) and that hurt me a little bit,” Bowser said. “I had a good pace down and I think I’ll be able to do better in the next couple of weeks. I’ve been working on a lot of pace work and trying to keep things consistent.”

In the boys junior varsity category, Monache finished in fourth place with 116 points. Porterville’s Shane Yacuta ran a time of 12:12 to finish in 13th place and Granite Hills’ Anthony Hernandez grabbed 16th with a time of 12:30.

In the girls JV division, Monache took fourth place with 85 points and Porterville ran away with sixth and 136 points. The Marauders’ Ana Asuncion finished in 10th, PHS’s Chelsea Martinez took 17th and Granite Hills’ Mary Kate McAleavey grabbed 29th.