Golden Valley goes the distance to sweep both CCC cross country crowns

It was a day to celebrate for the Golden Valley High cross country program as both the boys and girls won the final Central California Conference Center Meet at Lake Yosemite to clinch conference championships for both teams. 

 

The GV boys edge out Atwater by one point for the second consecutive center meet. The Cougars finished with 29 points to the Falcons’ 30. Golden Valley had five of the top nine finishers to earn the CCC championship. Junior Dominic Urteaga finished first with a time of 15 minutes, 9.3 seconds for Golden Valley. 

 

“I felt great running the course,” Urteaga said. “I knew at the start of the race I had to go, so I just went from the gun and just went out there and went for the win.”

 

Atwater had four of the top six placers in Isaian Vargas (second, 15:44.2), Yair Gonzalez (third, 15:45.3), Michael Garcia (fifth, 16:06) and Lucah Sherman (sixth, 16:19.3).

 

However, the Cougars had James Barajas finish fourth (16:00.1), Michael Elizarraraz Pedraza finish seventh (16:27.2), Daniel Valencia place eighth (16:29.8) and Melvin Leon finish ninth 16:36.6).

 

The girls race wasn’t quite as close as Golden Valley earned five of the top six spots with senior Fernanda Cortez winning her third center meet with a time of 17:03.1. “It just really feels natural for us now,” said Cortez of the Cougars winning a third consecutive CCC championship. “It feels really good for us to come out here and represent Golden Valley. It makes us all very happy.”

 

Only Merced High junior Ellie Hampton stood in the way of the Cougars claiming all five of the top spots. Hampton finished second behind Cortez with a time of 17:28.2. Golden Valley claimed third through sixth with Gabriela Hicks (18.33.3), Aubri Villa (19:32.9), Chelsea Chavez (19:43.9) and Katerin Ortiz Nunez (20:16.1).

 

Cortez says this Golden Valley core group is close on and off the course, which has helped lead to the Cougars success over the past three years. “A lot of us have classes together so that’s where a lot of us hang out together,” Cortez said. “We also hang out together outside of class and practice. Every Monday we try to go together somewhere after school.”

 

The Cougars will now set their focus on the postseason with the Sac-Joaquin Subsections coming up on November 7 and the Sac-Joaquin Section Championships following that on November 14. The Golden Valley girls finished one point short of qualifying for the state meet last year. 

 

“We have plenty of fuel,” Cortez said. “We’re very, very motivated to make it to state this year.”

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.