Legionnaire boys finish 8th at conference cross-country championship meet

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Bonsall High School’s boys finished eighth as a team at the Frontier Conference cross-country championship meet Thursday, Nov. 3, on the NTC Park at Liberty Station course in San Diego.

“This is our first placement,” Bonsall head coach Manuel Ramirez said.

Technically, the Legionnaires had the minimum five runners for a team score earlier in the season, but all Bonsall boys team runners competed in the junior varsity race at the fourth league cluster meet Thursday, Oct. 20, at NTC Park, whose name reflects the site's former use as the Naval Training Center.

Bonsall competed in three previous league cluster meets and in the Sept. 30 Coach Downey Cross-Country Classic at Morley Field in San Diego. Cross-country team scores are derived from the positions of a school’s first five finishers; the sixth and seventh runners are not scored but can add points to another school’s total.

All Frontier Conference schools run in the conference cluster meet. The Frontier Conference has three cross-country leagues. Bonsall is in the Patriot League. Bonsall finished third among Patriot League teams in the conference meet.

Ten schools in the conference had at least five boys and received a team score. Bonsall had 221 points. The seventh-place score of 181 points was obtained by The Preuss School. School for Entrepreneurship and Technology placed ninth with 224 points. The higher-placing Patriot League teams, High Tech High North County and High Tech High Mesa high schools, placed second and fifth respectively among all conference teams.

The fastest Bonsall runner, sophomore Devin Duke, had a time of 19 minutes, 47.6 seconds on the 5,000-meter – 3.1-mile – course to place 31st among conference runners and 11th among Patriot League harriers.

“Definitely a big improvement,” Ramirez said.

Last year Duke ran in the junior varsity race at the league championship meet and had a time of 22:55.8.

A time of 20:09.2 gave junior Brayden Duke 12th among Patriot League runners and 36th overall. The 49th-place time for sophomore Jason Martinez was 21:23.0. Jack Such, who is a senior, completed the course in 24:58.1 for 71st place. The 72nd finisher, freshman James Fitz, had a time of 25:13.6. Orlando Mencias posted a time of 26:47.4 to give the sophomore 80th place.

Three Bonsall students ran in the girls league championship race. The 25:40.9 posted by junior Alayna Walters gave her 33rd place, sophomore Mary Ramirez became the 49th finisher 27:12.3 after the race began and sophomore Samantha Kylestewa had the 56th-place time of 28:19.3.

“Proud of every single one of them,” Manuel Ramirez said. “They were very consistent.”

Last year’s Bonsall team had eight boys and two girls. The Legionnaires did not have cross-country two years ago.

“There’s kind of a revival of the team,” Bonsall assistant coach Ethan McFarland, who ran for the Legionnaires before graduating in 2022, said. “There’s a lot of hope for the team.”

Ramirez is also Bonsall’s track and field head coach. McFarland is currently attending Palomar College, which does not have men’s cross-country, and will assist with the track and field team if his schedule permits.

“Hopefully we’ll come back in the track season stronger,” McFarland said.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].