Story by Jennifer Corriea
MAGALIA, CA (MPG) – Traveling north of Paradise to the intersection of where the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountain ranges meet on Sept.19, the Colusa RedHawks and Pierce Bears joined Paradise, Willows, Winters, and Live Oak in the first Sacramento Valley League meet of the season.
Colusa made a statement in both varsity divisions, winning the boys team competition by a wide margin over second place Live Oak, while the girls outdistanced themselves from Pierce.
Although the RedHawk varsity boys didn’t win the three-mile race outright, they had six harriers place in the top 10.
Leading the way for Colusa was Jose Ceron, who crossed the line third in a time of 18:55, along with teammate Benji Granados (19:06) not far behind in fourth place.
Heading the RedHawk pact, which grabbed the sixth through ninth spots, respectively, was Cesar Cruz (20:24), Trenton Griffith (20:29), Felix Venancio (21:05), and William England (21:24).
In the varsity women’s race, Colusa’s Rajdeep Shoker finished first, in a time of 24:04, and just ahead of teammate Eloise Guerrero (24:34) in second.
Colusa had three others log top 10 placings including Giselle Valdes (25:46) in fourth, Sophia Thompson (29:17) in seventh, and Bella Badaluco (29:57) in ninth.
The Pierce girls also made a good showing with Karina Grajedra (25:46) ending the race in fifth, Carla Moreno (29:24) in eighth and Isabel Alvarado (30:27) in tenth.
On the two-mile course, the Bears’ Grace Szmurlo 22:06 was the JV girls race winner, while teammates Pamela Vernon (24:25) and Makinzie Frank (32:25) were third and fifth, respectively.
For the RedHawks, Olivia Stever (22:23) was second and Mia Cowsert (24:25) was fourth.
In the JV boys race, Colusa’s Nuriel Cortes (16:22) finished fifth, the only local participant to place in the top five.
SVL teams returned to Colusa County this week when they reconvened at the Arbuckle Golf Course on Sept. 27.