Through rain and tough terrain, the Diamond Bar cross country team competed in the Hacienda League Meet 2 at the Bonelli Regional Park. The athletes continued running despite the on and off rainy weather that occurred during the meet on Wednesday. The DB cross country team placed 4th overall while Bonita High School’s cross country team took first place.
The League 2 Meet had Bonita, Los Altos, Walnut, Diamond Bar, Rowland, West Covina, and Diamond Ranch as the high schools in the Hacienda League to compete. There were a total of seven high schools and 82 students at the meet. The Bonelli Regional Park course was 3 miles long and the trail looped around the entire Bonelli Park of the hills in San Dimas.
“We’re taking this meet’s results as a learning lesson for the upcoming league finals,” Coach Christine Cortez said. “If the girls’ varsity place 4th again, they can place for CIF finals.”
The girls placed 4th out of 6th. Leading the girl’s team, sophomore Anabelle Chang finished 13 out of 42 with a time of 20:38.3. After Chang was junior Ariana Infante at 21:04.4. Junior Jeannie Huang followed after with 21:05.2 respectively. Close behind was freshman Emily Slater at 22:00.2 and senior Annaliz Loera with 22:18.0. Senior Landi Gonzales received 24:25.5 and freshman Jessica Au got 24:55.5 to finish off with the girl’s fastest times.
“The runners had a good race but it was not considered their greatest, for the terrain and weather proved to be a challenge. They stay focused and continued to put in their best effort,” Cortez explained.
For the boys, they placed 6th out of 7th. Freshman Paul Abido led the way to complete the course first, finishing 33rd out of 45. Following after, junior Ryan Alvarrado came in at 37. Freshman Ronny Alemany, junior Hamilton Lin, and sophomore Walter Chang came after to complete DB’s top five times for the boys.
The cross country team hopes to improve their times for the next upcoming meet. “We hope to reach Top 4 in the next League meet for both boys and girls varsity. I feel the boys can reach these goals, and we look forward to improvement,” Cortez said.
The next upcoming cross country meet will be the Mt. San Antonio Invitational. It will occur on Friday, October 25 and Saturday, October 26. Only the top 7 varsity runners will be able to compete. The League finals at the Mt. Sac course will occur on Wednesday, November 6.
The cross country team consists of two freshmen and only two seniors. The Brahmas plan to gain experience for the future years.