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Viking girls second at Hamilton cross country meet

Vallecitos Elementary School coach Ray Hanbeck and several of his athletes traveled to Anza for a March 14 cross country meet hosted by Hamilton Elementary School.

The Vikings placed second among girls teams at the meet, which involved a 2-mile course and was based at Hamilton High School in Anza. Although the Vallecitos boys placed last as a team, Vallecitos seventh-grader Edgar Ortega placed second among individuals in the boys race.

A minimum of five runners are needed for a team score. The meet included four girls teams from among the seven small elementary schools in northern San Diego County and southern Riverside County which have monthly competitions with each school hosting a different sport and five boys teams. The positions of a school's first five finishers were used to obtain the team score. Vallecitos had six girls and five boys.

Cottonwood Elementary School, which is in Aguanga, was the girls team champion with 44 points. Vallecitos took second place with 54 points. Hamilton had the third-place total of 55 points.

"We beat them by one point," Hanbeck said.

Pauma Elementary School accumulated 66 points for fourth place.

The highest-finishing Vallecitos girl was eighth-grader Kelsey Rossi, who finished fourth and had a time of 16:20. Fifth-grader Berenice Yanez had the fifth place time of 16:47.

"The next ones were the ones that really made a big difference," Hanbeck said.

The concept of pack running is taught to teams which participate in cross country over a full season, but seventh-grader Cheyenne Crowe took 14th place and the next three finishers were Vallecitos fifth-graders.

"That helped out a lot. We were very happy, surprised and happy that they were able to do so well," Hanbeck said.

Crowe finished the race in 20 minutes, 48 seconds. Yamilee Rico completed the course in 21:35, Neyda Olvera posted a time of 21:40, and Cailey Crowe took 21:47.

Ortega had a second place time of 13:00 in the boys race. The winning time of 12:36 was posted by an eighth-grader from Julian Elementary School.

Julian Elementary School runners have more hills near their elementary school to train while Vallecitos Elementary School is in a flat part of Rainbow. Due to rain, the Vallecitos runners had three practices as a team.

"The kids had to do some running on their own to get in shape for the competition," Hanbeck said.

The competitors at the Hamilton cross country meet didn't face rain, but the 42 degree temperature and strong winds didn't make for an ideal meet.

"The conditions were really, really bad," Hanbeck said. "It was very, very cold and it was very, very windy. The conditions were not good for running."

The previous tournament for the seven schools was a basketball tournament at Borrego Springs Elementary School which was supposed to have been played Feb. 14. Heavy rains that day which closed schools and blocked travel routes forced that tournament to be postponed to Feb. 27, so practice for the cross country meet didn't begin until after the basketball contests.

"We only had two weeks to prepare," Hanbeck said.

Preparing for basketball games enhances the execution of plays, but height or lack thereof cannot be mitigated by practice. The six Vallecitos boys were all sixth grade or fifth-grade students and lost both of their games.

"They were really competitive, especially for the first game," Hanbeck said.

The games were 20 minutes and utilized a running clock. The Vallecitos boys lost a 22-11 contest to Pauma Elementary School and a 20-2 match against Hamilton.

The Vallecitos girls team consisted of five players.

"We only had one seventh-grader and the rest were fifth-graders," Hanbeck said. "They had a lot going against them."

The Vikings were given a first-round bye, lost in the semifinal and won the third place game.

"They did well," Hanbeck said.

The semifinal was against Hamilton, which eventually won the championship. The Bobcats took a 20-2 victory at the Vikings' expense. Cheyenne Crowe scored the two Vallecitos points.

Hamilton defeated Julian in the championship game. Vallecitos prevailed over Warner Springs in the third place game. The score was 11-7 with Rico scoring five points and Cailey Crowe, Cheyenne Crowe and Yanez adding two points apiece.

A softball tournament will be the next competition for the seven schools. Hanbeck does not have enough girls to have a girls team, so the Vallecitos girls will play on the boys team.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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