The Diamond Bar cross country team put its strength to the ultimate test last Wednesday at the Hacienda League Championships held at Mt. SAC. Staying consistent with its past league events, DB placed fourth overall for girls and sixth overall for boys to end the season.
“For Wednesday’s performance, the team really got together to finish its last race. Mt. SAC is one of the toughest cross country courses, and I really saw a lot of effort coming from the athletes,” coach Christine Cortez said.
Placing fourth out of seven teams, the Lady Brahmas completed the three-mile course with a total of 96 points. Sophomore Anabelle Cheng was the first Brahma to finish the race, finishing 9th with a time of 20:12. Following Cheng was junior Jeannie Huang, who placed 17th with a time of 21:06. Junior Ariana Infante, freshman Emily Slater, and senior Annaliz Loera were close behind and received times of 21:51, 21:53, and 21:59, respectively. The team, with its top five runners, was able to beat Rowland, which had 137 points.
Only eight points away from finishing fifth, the boys varsity team finished sixth overall with 149 total points and improved its score from the previous league meet. Finishing first for the team was sophomore Walter Chang, who placed 25th out 46 runners with a time of 17:30. Soon after was junior Hamilton Lin, finishing with a time of 17:38. Junior Ryan Alvarado and freshman Paul Abdo followed, with respective times of 18:06 and 18:10.
“I know we have room for improvement—the goal for the team is to continue working on their strength and endurance—but it was a good race in which they toughed it out,” Cortez said.
The seven cross country teams competing in the Hacienda League were high schools from Bonita, Diamond Bar, Diamond Ranch, Los Altos, Rowland, Walnut, and West Covina. In the league finals at Mt. SAC, Bonita High School placed first for the girls, while Walnut took first place for the boys varsity event.
In its first two league meets, the Brahmas consistently placed fourth for girls and sixth for boys. Cortez shared that the team performed its best at the Mt. SAC invitational event, during which all the athletes gave their full effort and some even ran their best times.
With a young team consisting mostly of sophomores, juniors, and only two seniors, Coach Cortez expects to start training her athletes early for the next year’s season.
“This season is a marker to see where we stand, but we’re working to be stronger. We will now be focusing on preparing athletes for track and continue practicing skills for the next cross country season for those juniors, sophomores, and freshmen,” Cortez said.
The Diamond Bar girls’ tennis team has started out this season swinging. The Lady Brahmas played exceptionally well all season by obtaining a 16-4 overall record with a 10-2 league record.
“We went far and are going to CIF again [the team is] pretty balanced and in a good position, 2nd in league,” senior and number two doubles player Iris Hsieh said. Hsieh stated that the match against the Rowland Raiders was the most challenging since both teams were equally talented. “We have two very strong doubles teams,” Coach Tisa Shavers said on the performance of the team.
Success in tennis depends as much on mental conditioning as it does physical training. “The girls have grown stronger mentally as well as physically and have gained more confidence in our games. [They] have just gotten stronger all around,” Shavers said.
Like the coach, the girls are equally proud of their progress. “I am really proud of my partner, of playing together and [getting] into semifinals,” junior and number three doubles player Rosanne Chen said.
Prior to the season, DB was expected to become the league champion for its eighth straight season. The Lady Brahmas have always been a mainstay of Diamond Bar High School athletics, setting high expectations.
“We are hoping to just play our best, I think we have an average chance at winning”, Shavers said.
Though some players are very nervous about the postseason, Shavers stays confident. “We have a lot of young talent that are willing to learn and we just need to get adjusted to the pressure moments,” Shavers said.
