GILROY – After helping the Gilroy High girls cross country team
to a third straight Tri County Athletic League crown and a third
place showing at the Central Coast Section Championships, senior
Paty Hernandez and sophomores Athena Alarcon and Maritza Ruelas
have one more race to compete in this season.
GILROY – After helping the Gilroy High girls cross country team to a third straight Tri County Athletic League crown and a third place showing at the Central Coast Section Championships, senior Paty Hernandez and sophomores Athena Alarcon and Maritza Ruelas have one more race to compete in this season.
The trio will lace up for the California Interscholastic Federation State Championship Meet at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday.
The girls individually qualified for the race at the CCS Championships two weeks ago.
“The competition is up there,” Alarcon said. “But it is a just a great thing to be a part of it.”
Alarcon and Hernandez raced at last year’s state meet as part of the Mustangs’ team, Ruelas is making her first appearance.
“When I’m out there and I see the competition it makes me want to win and run my heart out,” Ruelas said.
The course at Woodward Park is described as “hard-packed dirt trails with some grass and asphalt. It has mild ups and downs over rolling hills with one steep short hill.”
As the season progressed, the girls have shown strength in maneuvering the hills of various courses often gaining on opponents, or increasing leads.
“We are running at the same division and I’m sure some of the girls there have gotten better since last year,” Alarcon said.
The girls’ Division I race is scheduled to start at 11:45 a.m.
