Coast Conference Championships - October 28, 2009

Heading into the 2009 Coast Conference championship meet, the men's cross country team was a heavy underdog and would need a bit of luck to bring home a title to Salinas.The team would be running with an injured Manuel Esparza, one of the top individuals in Norcal, in hopes the sophomore could catch a break and manage to place high enough for the team to take the title.

Cross country is a team scoring sport with a team's first five placing runners determining the outcome. Hartnell learned how important this fact is in the men's race. Just three weeks ago before a devastating case of shin splints, Manuel Esparza produced one of the school's best individual marks at Crystal Springs with a time of 22:24. Had Esparza been able to reproduce that mark yesterday the Panthers would have taken home the team title. The debilitating shin splints forced the sophomore to stop running all together and go strictly to a regimen of cross training and injury rehabilitation for three leading into the race. As a result, Esparza did make an attempt to run but was unable to finish the race.

Daniel Tapia, the top runner in the state, held back early in attempt to help sophomore Jesus Cabrera potentially improve his individual placing. With a move at three miles, Tapia took control of the race and sped his way to his second Coast Conference title in 21:28 for the challenging 4.195 mile course. Cabrera, who was as far back as seventh with 1000 meters to go, would put in a charge to move up and held third place as late as 50 meters from the finish. The sophomore could not hold off two hard charging athletes from City College of San Francisco and placed fifth overall in a new personal best 21:57. Freshman Rigo Vasquez, who at one time was in the lead of the race, placed sixth (22:07) with teammate Alejandro Alcaraz (22:29) in eighth. Following Alcaraz it was apparent how painful Esparza's inability to run was as Hartnell would have to wait til Eric Yepez (24:05) would cross the line in 26th to finish the team scoring. Depsite Yepez's personal best by two minutes, the 15 individual placings between he and CCSF's fifth man was all the difference fo the title. Hartnell had placed four runners in front of team winner City College of San Francisco had their fourth runner in but CCSF would finish their team score with a runner at tenth overall. Despite the bittersweet rewards of having four runners get All-Conference and every placing runner set a personal best for the course could not offset the sting of knowing what could have been with a healthy Manuel Esparza.

Currently ranked fifth in Norcal, the Hartnell men will look to improve on that ranking on Novemer 7th at the regional championships. Sophomore Daniel Tapia will look to become the school's first ever repeat Norcal individual champion.

Santa Clara Bronco Invitational - October 17, 2009

The Hartnell cross country teams competed for the first time at the Santa Clara University Bronco Invitational held at Baylands Regional Park in Sunnyvale. Traditionally a four year university/college meet, the Bronco Invitational has slowly been gaining popularity with community college programs with Hartnell in attendance this year to take advantage of the strong competition

The men tackled an unfamiliar distance of 8k, approximately 5 miles, over the trails at Baylands Park. Sophomore Daniel Tapia was the only Panther allowed to compete in the highly competitve invitational 8k run. Tapia made the most of the experience placing a respectable ninth overall in 24:48 just 16 seconds from the win. Much of the race Tapia ran amongst the lead pack. The invitational race featured teams from not only California but from Idaho, New Mexico, and South Dakota.

The remaining Panthers toed the line in the Open 8k run. Hartnell's own Jesus Cabrera lead most of the race before being relegated to solid third place finish. Cabrera stopped the clock at 26:33. Rigo Vasquez (27:15), Alejandro Alcaraz (28:04), Robert Anderson (29:02), and Eric Yepez (29:44) completed the scoring team for Hartnell which tied for the win with Sacremento City College.

The Hartnell teams will enjoy a much needed bye week as they prep for the 2009 Coast Conference Championships on Wednesday, October 28th at Crystal Springs in Belmont.

Toro Park Invitational - October 9, 2009

With just West Valley College, West Hills College, and the women of College of Sequoias in attendance, the Hartnell cross country teams enjoyed a fruitful homecoming as both squads were victorious and posted some solid marks at Toro Park.

Coming off his stellar 1:07:12 half marathon in San Jose last weekend, Daniel Tapia relegated himself to pacemaker for his teammates. Tapia helped sophomore Jesus Cabrera and freshman Rigoberto Vasquez to a top three sweep. Tapia the individual winner at 21:21, Cabrera (21:24) and Vasquez (21:35) rewarded with all-time list performances. Hartnell alum Luis Corvera was fourth in 21:57. Alejandro Alcaraz (22:07) was 6th and Robert Anderson (23:29) 12th to round out the team's score of 22. West Valley College was a distance second with 44 points and West Hills posted a score of 64 points. Also running well were Eric Yepez (23:45), Edgar Hernandez (25:46), Cesar Alvarez (31:21), and Gustavo Hernandez (37:33).

The Hartnell teams will compete for the first time ever in school history at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational Saturday, October 17th. The Santa Clara Invitational attracts four year university/colleges and community collleges to a very fast course at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale. Hartnell's squad will be split with the top 5 men competing in the invitational 8 kilometer (4.97 miles) race, the remaining men in an open 8 km race.

Crystal Springs Invitational - October 2, 2009

Heading into the Crystal Springs Invite hosted by College of San Mateo, the goal was to get familiar with the course that will serve as host for the Coast Conference and Norcal Championships in a few weeks and move a little closer to the teams ranked ahead of our Hartnell teams. What transpired after 2.95 miles of racing for the women and 4.195 miles for the men were greater results than what was expected.

The men faced an unusual situation running without the top runner in both Norcal and state, Daniel Tapia. Sophomores Manuel Esparza, Jesus Cabrera, and Alejandro Alcaraz stepped up in place of their star runner all placing in the top 20. Manuel Esparza (22:24) was 12th, Cabrera (22:34) at 15th, and Alcaraz (22:41) right behind in 19th. Freshman Rigo Vasquez helped out as well placing 23rd in 23:00. The top four Panthers all moved on to the school's all-time list for Crystal Springs and will have two more opportunities to produce faster times on the course. Robert Anderson was Hartnell's fifth runner at a conservative 25:48. Anderson is nursing a hip injury and will look to make more of an impact at the conference and regional championship. Despite running without Tapia, the top four placers for Hartnell helped the team to a fifth place team finish. Factoring in Tapia, the Panthers would have been close to catching the top two teams in Norcal, College of Seqouias and American River College.

Hartnell will host the Toro Park Invitational on Friday, October 9th at Toro Park. Norcal top seed College of Sequoias will travel from Visalia to take on the Panthers. The invitational will kick off with a free Fun Run at 3:00 followed by the women's race at 3:30pm and men's race at 4:15pm.