By Chuck Lyons

Where’s Rosemead? That was a big question at Clovis High School Cross Country Invite last Saturday where approximately 130 high schools among four divisions gathered at Woodward Park in Fresno. Both Rosemead boys and girls teams ran very well against very tough competition, and the Rosemead girls put Rosemead on the map by outrunning previously ranked teams to place fourth overall, just missing third place by four points, announced Rosemead Head Coach Fidel Dominguez.

In the girl’s varsity race, seniors Brittnie Munoz, second place in 19:23, and Elizabeth Lyons, 21st place in 20:35, led the pack of Panthers as teammates sophomores Kelly Luc, 33rd place in 20:58, and Jocelyn Hua, 44th place in 21:18, and juniors Edlin Simental, 58th place in 21:36, and Melanie Chhem, 98th place in 22:54 surprised the very good competition, according to Dominguez.  “Another sophomore, Jennifer Phung, finished 50th in 21:27 in the frosh-soph race to complete the girl’s bouncy castle for sale efforts that is the best in our school’s history at Clovis,” said the first-year Rosemead coach.

Rosemead usually runs in Division 3 in regular meets, and this time they competed in Division 2, an even tougher division, said Dominguez. The Panthers (1:43.41) ran more than three minutes faster than CIF-SS Div. 3 10^th ranked Atascadero (1:47:17), and defeated some schools known for usual strong performances, such as Mater Dei, Brea Olinda, El Rancho, Maranatha, South Pasadena, and Newport Harbor, among others, said Dominguez.

“Some of the other schools may or may not have been at full strength, yet our runners ran well, and that’s what counts,” said Dominguez. “Our runners are dedicated and really train well as a group.”

Rosemead boy’s varsity finished in 20th place, also in Division 2. Runners included senior Chris Le (65^th, 17:30), sophomores Kelvin Zhong (90^th, 17;50), and Daniel Moreno (100^th, 17:58), senior Gilbert Ramirez ( 112^th, 18:07), and juniors Johny Leung (128^th, 18:27) and Michael Rosales (159^th, 19:15). Sophomore Abraham Esparza finished 46^th in 17:36 in the frosh-soph race.

Rosemead High School sophomore Daniel Moreno (left), with a time of 17:58 on the hilly 5000 meters course and senior teammate Gilbert Ramirez (18:07) competed against many top runners in California to help Rosemead boys finish in 20th place in large schools division at Clovis High School Cross Country Invitational on Oct. 10, in Fresno at the state meet course at Woodward Park. Photo by C. Lyons.

Varsity girl cross country runners from Rosemead High School surprised the competition with a fourth place finish in the large schools division at Clovis Invitational on Oct. 10, at Woodward Park in Fresno, where the state championship meet will be held in November. Pictured are (from left) Elizabeth Lyons, Melanie Chhem, Brittnie Munoz, Jocelyn Hua, Edlin Simental, and Kelly Luc. Photo by C. Lyons.