Warrior boys inaugurate cross-country course with 17-43 win

In the first boys varsity race on Fallbrook High School’s “new” cross-country course, Fallbrook High School won its league opener with a 17-43 victory September 28 over Vista High School.

Six of the first seven runners across the finish line represented Fallbrook. “They’re all coming together, and it’s really exciting,” said Fallbrook coach Marco Arias.

The 5,000-meter boys course is actually an old course which was used in an earlier era. “It’s a tougher course. It runs a little bit slower because there’s two major hills,” Arias said.

Those hills may have affected times, but the performance of the Fallbrook team didn’t suffer. “It went fairly well,” Arias said. “Varsity guys, they ran really well.”

Bret Hasvold was the first runner across the finish line, completing the course in 16:00. “He ran his race,” Arias said. “He ran fairly easy. He didn’t try to push it.”

Josh Smith finished second at 16:54 and Sam Liner placed third with a time of 17:00. “What really got my attention was Sam Liner and Josh,” Arias said. “I was really happy with their performance.”

Vista’s first runner crossed the finish line at 17:06. Since times are rounded up to the next-highest second, fifth-place Todd Van Duzer and sixth-place Uriel Aguirre each had times of 17:12.

“The guys are coming together and they’re starting to run as a pack,” Arias said. “If we pack up pretty well I think we’re going to be very tough to beat.”

The positions of the top five runners from each school are added for the team score, and while a school’s sixth and seventh runners are not scored those runners can add positions to the opposing school’s top five runners. Sean Wood’s time of 17:29 placed seventh. “Sean Wood really came through,” Arias said.