Atwater's Alvarado punches ticket to CIF State Meet

FOLSOM -- Abraham Alvarado's cross country season will continue.

The Atwater senior qualified for the CIF State Meet with a ninth-place finish Saturday at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 2 championships. Abraham crossed the finish line in 16 minutes, 15 seconds.

Alvarado advances to the state championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 24.

Joining Alvarado will be the Livingston boys team, which finished second to Dixon in Division 4.

The Wolves were led by senior Izzak Mireles, who finished second overall with a time of 16:38. Fellow senior Sergio Garcia finished ninth with a time of 17:14. Isais Contreras (17:30), Andy Ponce (17:49) and Dilpreet Singh (17:51) all finished in the top 26.

Also punching his ticket to state was Pacheco's Ryan Salcido. The senior finished 7th in the Division 3 race with a time of 16:19.

Atwater's girls team finished 10th in Division 2. The Falcons were led by Jacqueline Mangana, who was 28th overall with a time of 20:18.

Other top locals were Golden Valley's Destinee Lopez (20:15), who finished 26th in Division 2. Los Banos junior Sarah Gama (21:43) finished 29th in Division 4.

Foothill boots Blue Devils

SAN JOSE -- After a solid opening night in the San Jose City Tournament, the Merced College men's basketball team was taught a lesson in not coming prepared to play in a 75-33 loss to Foothill. The team effort, particularly on the defensive end, was found wanting and Foothill made the Blue Devils pay by forcing 20 first-half turnovers and jumping out to a 44-11 halftime lead.

UC Merced men fall

FULLERTON -- The UC Merced men's basketball team whittled a 24-point second-half deficit down to six, but couldn't get any closer in a 72-61 road loss to Hope International on Saturday. Aki Chambers paced the Golden Bobcats with a game-high 25 points. George Idehen added 11 points and a team-high 12 rebounds.