Seniors Athena Alarcon (20 minutes, 28 seconds) Savannah Silacci
(20:47) and Maritza Ruelas (21:03) took the top three spots en
route to Mustangs’ victories over both the Eagles and Vikings.
A strong core of senior runners contributed to a first-place finish for the Gilroy High girls cross country team in the senior division at the Sept. 10 Earlybird Invitational at Salinas’ Toro Park.
That same group paced the Mustangs in the Tri-County Athletic League opener against Alvarez and North Salinas on Monday.
Seniors Athena Alarcon (20 minutes, 28 seconds) Savannah Silacci (20:47) and Maritza Ruelas (21:03) took the top three spots en route to Mustangs’ victories over both the Eagles and Vikings.
“Those three are running well, back to their old selves,” coach Catherine Silva said.
Padding the wins was a viable supporting cast, including junior Noemi Rivera (22:36), senior Jessica Arciga (23:36), senior Chelsey Kalata (23:41) and sophomore Sorayma Perez (23:44), who finished in sixth, eighth, ninth, and 10th, respectively.
Those performances, coupled with the one, two, three sweep at the top, has Silva excited to see what may come as the season progresses.
“They are coming in right behind the other three. They have been working really hard, their times are dropping and that is great news,” Silva said.
On the boys’ side, junior Enrique Villanueva clocked a 18:16 to finish third and senior Ryan Swenor (18:24) was close behind in fourth to help the Mustangs split the tri-meet with a 1-1 record, despite not having their second and third fastest runners available.
Senior Gabriel Contreras (18:42), freshman Daniel Ordaz (19:28), senior Jose Camacho (20:07), senior Andrew Mikkelsen (20:11), and senior Luis Magana (21:21) round out the Mustangs’ lineup.
“We have some different boys stepping up this year,” Silva said.
The Junior Varsity boys went 2-0 while the girls split 1-1. Sophomore Bryan Kachakji (19:13) took first in the JV boys race and sophomore Karla Cortes (27:27) was the top JV girls finisher, placing third.
Gilroy hosts the next TCAL tri-meet Monday with Notre Dame and Palma at Christmas Hill Park.
