Boys cross country finishes 3rd at league meet

The Valley League cross country meet held Nov. 16 at Kit Carson Park included a third-place team finish for Ramona High School’s boys as well as all-league honors for three Ramona runners.

“It was the best race of the year for both the boys and the girls,” said Head Coach Steve Albanese (see accompanying story on the girls’ results). “It went awesome.”

The top 10 finishers at the league meet earn all-league first team honors while the next 10 finishers receive second-team designation. Ramona junior Isaiah Spieker earned first-team Valley League distinction with a third-place finish. His time of 16:18 was 25 seconds faster than his Oct. 31 performance on the course during a league cluster meet. First-team recognition was also given to sophomore Joey Jauregui, whose time of 16:46 was worth seventh place and was 31 seconds less than his Oct. 31 time.

A 15th-place time of 17:08 gave junior Colin Uekert second-team Valley League honors. Uekert dropped 27 seconds from his Oct. 31 time.

Ben Stein took 23rd place with a time of 17:28, a 43-second improvement from the sophomore’s Oct. 31 time. A 36-second drop in time for Ramona’s James Meskell gave him 28th place at 17:40.

A school can enter up to 12 runners for the league meet and up to seven runners for the CIF meet. Ramona seniors Anthony Jauregui and Eric Szymanski secured the final Bulldog spots in this Saturday’s CIF meet at Morley Field. Jauregui posted a 31st-place time of 17:54 while Szymanski placed 33rd at 18:01. The times were both 24-second improvements over their Oct. 31 performances.

Ramona’s other five runners competed in the Nov. 8 junior varsity league meet. Jackson Sutter’s varsity league meet time of 18:08 gave him 37th place. Danny Edwards was 43rd at 18:26. Matt Meskell battled through an injury and finished in 18:29 for 45th place. Colin McNulty posted a 46th-place time of 18:33. Sam Clough finished 54th with a time of 19:04.

A team’s sixth-place finisher is used to break a tie in team scores. On Oct. 31 Ramona and Orange Glen tied for third with 88 points and the Bulldogs won the tiebreaker since James Meskell finished ahead of the Patriots’ sixth finisher. Orange Glen rested top runner Andrew Tellames with an injury that day.

In the Nov. 16 race Ramona edged Orange Glen for third place by 1 point. Tellames not only ran but also won the race.

“That shows how much our boys stepped up,” Albanese said. “This time we beat them with their No. 1 runner.”

The top three teams in each division at the CIF section meet qualify for the CIF state meet. Prior to the league meet Albanese felt that qualifying for the state meet would be a longshot for the Bulldogs.

“Now I think we have a very strong chance if we continue to improve,” he said.