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Times please boys cross-country coach

Official scores were not kept when Fallbrook High School’s boys cross-country team opened its season with a September 2 meet at Lindo Lake Park in Lakeside, but Fallbrook coach Marty Hauck was pleased with the times at the Vaquero Stampede invitational.

“I thought we did extremely well,” Hauck said. “It was a very, very competitive meet, so we were pretty excited about how we came away from it.”

Ten teams apiece competed in the junior-senior division and the freshman-sophomore division. The junior-senior division ran a 2.15-mile course. First place went to Austin Jett of Eastlake High School, who is ranked fourth in the state. Second place went to Eric Avila of Bonita Vista High School, who is ranked sixth in the state.

Avila and Fallbrook’s Bret Hasvold had the same time for the race, but Avila finished second after leaning forward to cross the finish line ahead of Hasvold.

Hasvold finished third with a time of 10:34. “He narrowly missed getting second place,” Hauck said. “That was a tremendous start to his season.”

Eight of Fallbrook’s runners placed in the top 25. Vinny Granata had a time of 11:01, Todd Van Duzer finished at 11:07, Tim Eves came in at 11:19, Josh Smith finished with a time of 11:20, Sam Liner ran the course in 11:21, Forrest Whitfield completed the race with a time of 11:34, and Kevin Strickfaden ran the race in 11:35.

“It’s a really solid group. We’ve got a lot of depth and a lot of quality,” Hauck said.

The freshman and sophomore runners had a 1.65-mile course. Uriel Aguirre led the Fallbrook runners, finishing 11th with a time of 9:00. Aguirre likely would have placed higher had he not lost a shoe on the course and ran the last half of the race with only one shoe. “It was actually a very good performance,” Hauck said.

The Vaquero Stampede enables the Warriors to prepare for the Laguna Hills Invitational September 9, in which Fallbrook will face the El Toro High School squad ranked second in the state. “It’s almost a pre-season time trial,” Hauck said of the Vaquero Stampede.

 

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