Fallbrook High places third in junior race

Fallbrook High School's boys placed third in the junior race of the Laguna Hills Cross Country Invitational meet Sept. 8 and Warrior runner Josh Hernandez was the third individual finisher in that race.

"It's just a real positive start to the season," said Fallbrook head coach Marco Arias.

Cross country team scores are derived by adding the position of a school's first five finishers. The sixth and seventh runners are not scored but can add points to other teams' totals. Poway High School won the Division 2 junior boys race with 34 points, Mira Costa High School of Manhattan Beach had 81 points, and Fallbrook accumulated 118 points. The fourth-place school, Mission Viejo, had 126 points.

"We haven't brought back a plaque from Laguna Hills in quite some time," Arias said. "That's a positive step."

The Laguna Hills course is 3.0 miles. Poway's Alejandro Barranco won the junior race with a time of 15:45.9, Cole Havins of Murrieta Mesa had the second-place time of 15:56.9, and Hernandez posted a time of 16:26.2. The fourth-place finisher, Poway's Zak Beckwith, finished in 16:33.8.

"Josh is running phenomenal," said Arias. "He had a great summer."

Medals were given to the first 40 finishers in each race, and three Fallbrook juniors received medals. Fallbrook's Tristan Suppe finished 37th with a time of 18:10.9. The first ever cross country race for Angel Gonzalez included a time of 18:29 and 40th place.

Fallbrook also had the first two finishers who missed placing high enough for a medal. John Regan, a transfer from North Carolina, finished 41st with a time of 18:37.4. Osvaldo Urbina posted a time of 18:37.9 for 42nd place.

Joe Bell was 59th among juniors with a time of 19:28.4. Ian Whadford completed the course in 19:36.2 for 63rd place. Andres Martinez became the 67th finisher 19:59.2 after the race began.

Fallbrook's sophomore boys placed 12th as a team. Three Warrior runners were among the race's first 100 finishers: Danny Contreras earned a medal for his tenth-place time of 17:18.8, Nash Youngren finished 73rd at 19:35.1, and Quinn Lynas took 90th place with a 20:31.2 performance.

"Looking forward to a great season," said Arias.

This year's team has 19 boys. "It's a great group of kids who like each other and like working hard for each other," Arias said.

Hernandez, Suppe, and Contreras are the captains of this year's team, which has no freshman or seniors.

"Our team is really made up of sophomores and juniors (so) it really stacks up pretty well for the next two years," said Arias.