Long Beach, CA — The Valencia Vikings cross country team traveled to El Dorado Park in Long Beach looking to eclipse the competition at the Bell Gardens Invitational this past weekend. Finding a mixed terrain course with thick, uneven grass sections interspersed with faster road sections, the team was anticipating tough competition and a chance for personal bests on the deceptively challenging course. With pleasant temperatures and a slight breeze for later races, the conditions were nearly ideal for the Vikings. Our small contingent of upper classmen Vikings set the tone for the day with our Senior Boys starting off the action and the Juniors following shortly afterwards. Grant Young was competing for a top spot in the senior boys’ race which was the fastest race of the day. His 15:46 was good for 10th place and was just back from his season best which was set on a much faster course. Jacob Kunz was the next Viking across the line, and he finished with a huge personal best over three miles at 17:44; this was a 44 second improvement! Damien Turner and Justin Yuh worked as a team for much of the race before Damien pulled away to finish in 18:52 with Justin at 19:23. In the Junior Boys race, Noah Flores finished at 17:46, a solid effort for him. Sophomore Michael Hatch squeezed in his race before umpiring obligations and raced a year up . His 21:35 was a new personal bet at 3 miles by 33 seconds! In one of the biggest fields of the day with 188 competitors, we had 3 Junior Lady Vikes toe the line. Samantha Armitage was our first girl placing 72nd with another solid time under her belt. Samantha is running close to her times last year without having a summer base due to a knee injury. We’re glad to see her returning to top form! Second Junior girl for the Vikings was Sophie Tran who got out well and ran a season best, close to a personal best, on the technical course. So proud of Sophie putting herself out there to grab a solid time! Working together with Sophie during the race, Gracie Brooke came in right behind Sophie, also with a season best, toughing it out after a week of illness. With the sun shining brightly and the temperature rising, the Sophomore Boys brought more heat to the day. Emilio Oviedo looked smooth and comfortable at the front early in the race, he held on to the top group and finished fifth at 16:40. Alex Basin and Adam Sandoval pushed each other through two and a half miles, before Alex’s hot kick had him finishing at 17:20 for a PR by 21 seconds. Adam’s 17:25 was right at his lifetime best. Lincoln Gabbard continued his consistent racing after a couple of weeks away; his 17:39 was a season best. Nehemiah Pop was the final team scorer for the Vikings at 17:55 and sealed the team Victory for the Soph Vikes with a total of 76 points. This had them easily toping the 20 other teams in the field! Outside the scoring five, Brian Lumaya had a 20 second PR at 19:26 and Dylan Marshall dropped an amazing 96 seconds off his previous best at 3 miles. Outstanding work Vikings! Unfortunately, due to injuries and scheduling conflicts, the Lady Sophomore Viking only had 4 girls at the starting line, one shy of a full team. That did not stop our Vikings from running great individual performances in the field of 142. Liana Sushinsky had set herself goals for the day: to place top ten overall and run a time of 20:30. Like the champ that she is, Liana checked both boxes. Going out a bit quicker on the front end than the prior races, she placed 9th overall with a time of 20:31. Mariaesperanza Lopez put herself in a great position early on in the race and found herself 21st place overall with a solid time of 21:29. Maria continues to improve despite many injuries early on in the season. Next Viking was Kylee Weber, who like Maria has been dealing with injuries off and on. Only able to run a handful of miles a week Kylee looked strong out there and ran 23:55. Just behind Kylee was Macy Redin who has been super consistent in her last 3 races and is a strong addition to our Sophomore girls. The final boys race of the day saw the Frosh Vikings sweating at the line as the mercury was rising. Cash Klinger continued to show his smart racing with a controlled start and a push in the second mile to compete for the top spot. His finish at 16:20 was good for third. Kaden Ramos tried out a new race strategy with success. His slower first mile had him finishing strong with a 17:48 in 18th place. Arian So was the next Viking across the line at 17:58; he showed his grit after a fast start had him suffering in the last mile. Luke Rezkallah continues to impress! His steady improvement had him dropping 19 seconds for a personal best of 18:51. Miles Frizado had a blistering last mile moving up dozens of places from the start as he finished as the fifth Frosh Viking; his 18:59 was a 23 second improvement! As a team the Frosh boys finished fourth; a solid performance from a group that is filled with new racers. The largest PRs of the day came from this group. Crue Redfern dropped over 2 minutes to nab a 21:20 performance. Amogh Chedde worked through some injuries to get back at it with a 71 second improvement at a 21:44 finish. Carlos Sagayap showed his strength on the course dropping 54 seconds to finish at 21:32 while Gabriel Navarro had a 40 second PR at 22:57. Bennet Pauer dropped 34 seconds for a 19:53 finish. Adrian Gonzalez ran a 24 second PR after losing his shoe with 800m to go, finishing at 19:20. Graham Denlea and Sean McGinley dropped 22 and 8 seconds, respectively, for new personal bests. This group continues to impress their consistent hard work, their support for their teammates and the impressive improvements. In the final event, the Frosh Lady Vikings got a good start on the tricky grass terrain. After the first mile, the group separated and Emily Farrell was up in second place, tucked close behind first. Emily patiently waited until a half of a mile to go before dropping the hammer to pass and take over the first place position. She pushed through the finish to handedly win by nearly 30 seconds with a time of 19:22! Gwendalyn Wiercioch went out with the top group and hung on for an impressive eighth place and a shiny new personal record over 3 miles at 21:25. Gwen continues to learn and improve in each race. Third Viking, Micaella Fenelon, also set herself up with a new PR of 22:00! Mica settled herself into a strong pace early on and looked even stronger while passing runners in the latter half of the race placing eleventh place in a field of 136 competitors. Sofia Langer raced like a veteran runner even though this was only her third cross country race ever! She was the Vikings fourth lady to score at 35th overall and another girl to walk away with a personal best. Coming in a few seconds behind Sofia was Bailey Haydamack, also competing in her third cross country race, however you wouldn’t know it by watching her out there! She is racing with confidence and poise and placed fifth on the team and in the top third of the field. It was as close as it could be for the team title for the Frosh girls. With so many great performances, the Vikings were tied for first with Desert Vista High School scoring at total of 51 points. It came down to the sixth-place girls for each team, which is highly unusual, yet shows the importance of all members of the team. Hayley Sykes has been dealing with injuries and has not been training at full capacity for the past few weeks, yet she brought it when the gun went off and was faster than the sixth place Desert Vista runner, securing the Viking Team Win!!!! The placard will be displayed in Coach Klinger’s classroom for bragging rights. Honorable mentions for Lady Vikings who also ran a personal bests at the meet: Gianna Bazar, Benedetta Lombardo and Nidhi Illendula. These girls have been working hard and it’s paying off in accolades. Next week the Vikings will take on the infamous challenging hills at Mt San Antonio College in the Mt. SAC Invitational.