Elijah Medina led Redlands East Valley High School boys’ cross-country team to a second-place finish in the Citrus Belt League cluster meet on Saturday at Beaumont High.
Meanwhile, Citrus Valley High’s freshman Alyssa Castaneda took fifth in the girls’ division 3-mile with a time of 19:03.9 as four of her teammates finished in the top 30.
Medina, a sophomore, and Cajon’s Ayden Ramirez battled to the finish with Ramirez edging Medina in 15:09 flat, to 15:09.3 for Meinda.
Cajon won the team title with 43 points to 53 for REV. Yucaipa scored 62 points, Beaumont 70, CVHS 126 and Redlands 145.
REV placed five runners in the top 20. Emery Dominguez was eighth in 15:53.7, Jaime Wallace was 10th in 15:56.8, Brendan Mercado-Medina was 15th in 16:13.0 and Dominick Vasquez was 18th in 16:18.8.
Evan Rout paced Citrus Valley with a 14th place showing in 16:11.6. Hudson Glassmire led Redlands with a 24th place finish in 16:27.3.
Yucaipa High won the girls division race with 32 points, followed by Beaumont (46), Cajon (76), Citrus Valley (93), REV (135) and Redlands (141).
Kiera Dorneiden of REV was her team’s first finisher in 17th place in 20:17.5. Brooklyn Ryan finished first for Redlands, timed in 21;45.8 in 27th place.
Redlands and Citrus Valley teams are scheduled to participate in the 77th annual Mt. SAC Invitational on Oct. 24-25 in Walnut. The CBL finals are Nov. 1 at Yucaipa Community Park.
Slagter sibling lead ACA
Sophomore Leah Slagter of Arrowhead Christian Academy won the girls division of the second Small Schools League’s cluster meet on Oct. 14 at Lake Perris Campground’s course.
Meanwhile Micah Slagter, a senior, led ACA’s boys’ team to a second-place finish behind Ontario Christian, taking seventh in 15:32.2, a minute faster than his time of 16:39.61 in the first cluster race.
Leah Slagter finished the 2.9-mile course in 17:21.42, more than a minute faster than her time for the previous race on Sept. 30 (18:46.2 for three miles.) Her team took fourth place with 77 points.
Five ACA runners finished in the top 31 spots. Giselle Umali was the top finisher for Redlands Adventist Academy (42nd in 22:03.93) while Molly Brazfield was first among Packinghouse Christian runners (51st in 22:03.93). Gwen von Pingel of The Grove School finished 55th in 23:07.29.
Loma Linda Academy, which won the girls’ division first cluster meet two weeks ago, did not participate.
In the boys’ race, Benjamin Sams of ACA finished ninth in the field of 125 runners with a time of 15:44.66. All five ACA runners finished in the top 30 to score 80 points. Ontario Christian won with 17 points.
Noah Lauer was Redlands Adventist’ best runner, placing 32nd in 17:40.98. Liam Urista of Packinghouse Christian led his team with a 45th place finish in 18:11.69. Gareth Haire led The Grove School, taking the 103rd spot in 22:14.70.
ACA is scheduled to compete in the Mt. SAC Invitational on Oct. 24-25 followed by the Small Schools League Championship meet on Nov. 4.
Bulldog Runners Excel
Stian Asper of the University of Redlands set a new men's record for the 8-kilometer run when he finished 25th out of 280 runners at the UC Riverside Highlander Invitational Cross-Country meet on Saturday.
Asper was tied in 24:17.4 seconds, beating the old record set by Tucker Cargile in 2021 by 2.8 seconds. The Bulldogs finished 15th out of 25 teams composed of NCAA Div. 1, II and III competitors with 436 points. Arizona was first with 36 points followed by Grand Canyon (140) and Cal Baptist (142), all Division 1 teams.
Keira Beyer and Eve Mavy led the University Redlands women to a fifth-place finish in the team scoring in the women's open 6K run which involved 116 runners. Redlands scored 164 points. Beyer was 16h in 23:24.3 while Mavy was 17th in 23:32.2.
The two teams will participate in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships on Nov. 1.
