Castaneda rises to occasion for Eagles

Chris Yemma

With only four runners in the mix, the Estancia High boys cross

country team did not officially score points. But it didn’t stop the

the Eagles from producing a winner.

With team captain Alex Cahuantzi not running, junior Ernie

Castaneda stepped up, like he has done many times this season, and

finished 10th overall in the varsity Division I race, Saturday at the

Mt. San Antonio College Cross Country invitational.

Castaneda, a Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week honoree two weeks

ago, placed first for Estancia with atime of 16 minutes, 15 seconds.

He competed against 167 runners from 27 schools.

“I did really well,” Castaneda said. “The track was horrible and

grueling and really, really hilly.”

Castaneda said he improved vastly over last year’s performance at

Mt. SAC. On the course last year, he said he was “dying” because he

was out of shape and wasn’t prepared for it.

This year, he was only 25 seconds off his personal record of

15:50, set at Costa Mesa High a few weeks ago.

The course at Costa Mesa was flat, so the 25-second differential

was due to the hills at Mt. SAC, he said.

Estancia had a rough few days coming into the invitational. The

Eagles normally compete in Division III, but for some reason, they

were scheduled in Division I at Mt. SAC. Coach Charlie Appell called

to find out why, but his calls weren’t returned -- so the team ended

up competing in the larger division.

Then, on the way to the meet, one of their vans broke down, Appell

said.

That was multiplied by the lack of a fifth runner. Despite the

adversity, Appell was able to keep an optimistic attitude.

“Everyone has progressed real well this week coming up to this

[meet],” he said.

Freshman Hector Gomez was the second runner for Estancia, placing

105th overall in 17:41.

Sophomore Alan Reza (122nd in 18:05) and senior Geovani Rodea

(142nd in 18:47) also contributed for the Eagles.

The Estancia girls had better luck than the boys. They actually

had five runners competing and captured eighth eighth in the Division

I varsity race with 236 points.

Their combined time was 1:51:56.

Estancia freshman Karina Rios finished 14th overall in 20:29.

Freshman Paula Negrete was 48th with a time of 22:06.

Senior Lucia Leon (52nd in 22:21), freshman Eunice Rodriguez (61st

in 23:02) and senior Jenny Arriola (83rd in 24:00) comprised the rest

of the Eagles’ top five.

The average time for each Estancia girls runner was 22:12, exactly

one minute off the average of the first-place La Costa Canyon, which

scored 25 points.

All five of La Costa Canyon’s girls were in the top 11, including

the top two.

Six other schools competed, but all six failed to produce five

runners to earn points.

“Our expectations for this were to come out of here healthy,”

Appell said. “It worked out pretty well. The girls are tough. And

they went ballistic after placing in Division I.”