Girls earn third in league meet

Ramona High School’s girls cross country team placed third in the Valley League meet held November 15 at Kit Carson Park, and four Bulldog runners earned all-league status for being among the top 20 finishers.

“They did good,” said Ramona Coach Steve Emery.

Westview won the meet with 29 points while Mount Carmel finished second with 49 points. Ramona had 62 points, only 13 behind the Sundevils.

“That’s not bad,” Emery said.

Valley Center was fourth with 90 points. San Marcos accumulated 150 points and Oceanside had 168 points. Orange Glen did not have enough runners for a team score.

The top 10 finishers at the league meet earn first-team all-league status while the runners who finish 11th through 20th are given second-team all-league honors. Ramona had two of the first-team runners, as sophomore Lindsey Spieker ran the 2.75-mile course in 18:08 to finish fifth and freshman Lauren Cortez posted a time of 18:12 to place seventh.

Two other Bulldogs had finishes which earned second-team recognition. Chelsea Maurer’s time of 18:39 gave her 14th place while Chelsey Cortez was 15th at 18:44.

Brittany Balcom is still recovering from shin splints and just missed all-league honors for her senior season; Balcom finished 21st with a time of 19:06. Balcom’s finish gave Ramona a split of 58 seconds for the first five runners.

Ashley Duck had a time of 19:53 to place 31st. Jessica Russo’s time of 20:00 gave her 33rd place.

The cross country season continues with the CIF meet this Saturday at San Diego’s Morley Field course.

“We’ll have another shot at it at CIF,” Emery said.