Runners ready for City Championship
Cibola boys and girls cross country teams eye repeat of top spots on Wednesday
YUMA, Ariz. ( KYMA, KECY-TV ) - The long wait is over for boys and girls cross country teams in their quest for the YUHSD city championship. On Wednesday, October 19th, at Kofa High school, the Cibola Raiders boys and girls teams look to defend their titles. Over the past few weeks, Cibola head coach Jose Villasenor has been giving some of his top runners some rest leading up to the city meet.
"I held back our top seven for boys and girls [October 5th] mainly because we have a big focus for the Titan Invite with some pretty big schools running in that one followed by the city championship," Villasenor said. "We just felt holding some of them back will help them out with that."
At the meet at West Wetlands Park on October 5th, Villasenor's boys team finished third behind Kofa and Gila Ridge.
Kofa finished in first place with 21 team points led by Damien Moreno who finished in second place. Winning the boys event was Gila Ridge senior Eduardo Marquez.
I ended up getting a thorn in my shoe," Marquez said. "It was very uncomfortable and was poking for the last mile. Overall, even with the circumstances I knew that I still had to push through. It was a tough course and a little humid but I pushed through and did my best.
Marquez finished with a time of 19:14. Kofa's Damien Moreno was just a minute behind with a time of 20:19.
"Our goal is to run with a purpose," Gila Ridge head coach Sergio Lopez said. "The athletes pick a purpose and that's what they run for to keep them motivated. Our goal is to always beat the time we had at our previous meet and so far we're seeing a lot of personal records fall throughout the year."
From the beginning of the year to the present, Lopez says he also has one runner that has improved their time by a total of five minutes.
On the girls side, the revamped Cibola girls team will be another force as the Lady Raiders won the tri-meet on October 5th without thier top runners, finishing with a team score of 39 points, followed by Gila Ridge at 41 points and Kofa with 43.
Kofa freshman Sabrina Anaya and teammate Gabrielle Avila placed first and second in the meet.
"I can't believe I beat her," Anaya said. "I felt really good, I stretched really good and I felt like this was going to be a good race."
The city championship takes place at 4:00 p.m. at Kofa High School on Wednesday, October 19th.
