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Boys cross country wide open without Fernandez
last updated: September 04, 2008 08:11:48 AM
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The Stanislaus District's cross country season gets under way Saturday with more than two dozen schools running in the Sierra Invitational at Tuolumne River Regional Park in Modesto.
Riverbank's German Fernandez won the boys' five-kilometer race in a record 14 minutes, 47 seconds last fall, and eventually won a state cross country title.
With Fernandez having graduated, the boys race should be an open affair, while the top girls returning from last year's race include Davis' Amanda Innes and Bret Harte's Sara Mikesell.
The frosh-soph boys go at 9 a.m. and the varsity boys at 10. The girls races are 9:30 and 10:30.
The course is a favorite among runners because it's flat, provides shade, and offers three running surfaces -- grass, dirt and asphalt. The course includes mile markers and race monitors provide mile splits as runners pass.
SOCCER TOURNAMENT, at Ripon Christian — Trans-Valley League rivals Escalon and Ripon, semifinalists in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V playoffs last fall, are among the contenders in the Ripon Christian Tournament.
Ripon, led by Eric Cavanaugh with five goals and an assist, faces Millennium, and Bret Harte faces Pioneer at 9 a.m. Saturday. Escalon meets Venture and the host Knights play Chavez at 10 in the other first-round games. The championship match is at 3.
KICKIN' IT AROUND — The Central California Conference soccer race could be a battle, based on the Davis Tournament. Five teams — Merced, Atwater, Golden Valley, Pitman and Los Banos — finished among the top two in their brackets and Merced won a share of the title with Modesto.
Merced went 3-0-1 — its only blemish was a scoreless tie with Oakdale — and beat pool winner Ceres 2-0 in one of two title matches. Pitman fell 3-0 to Modesto in the other final — the four pool winners each played an extra game, while Golden Valley beat two-time defending CCC champion Atwater 2-1.
Conference play opens Sept. 17 and Merced's early-season prowess around the goal makes it a contender to challenge Atwater. The duo of Octavio Murillo and Christian Alvarez combined for nine goals and four assists in the Bears' first five games and Junior Estrada has allowed just one goal.
Bee staff writer Richard T. Estrada can be reached at restrada@modbee.com or 578-2300.
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