The Dons will make the trek to Seaside, Oregon via Portland in order to compete at the Three Course Challenge next Saturday at Camp Rilea in Warrenton, OR. While the Dons will be missing a few key athletes, they hope to find success along the trails of the true cross country experience.

Top 10 Finishers - Division 1
Jonathan Carranza (6th)
Jessica Kim (9th)
Athalia Magana (9th)
Ganesh Tilve (10th)

The Dons had some breakthrough performances which allowed them to place in the top four in four divisions at the Rosemead Invitational on Saturday.

Sophomore Girls/Seniors Girls - 2nd
Sophomore Boys - 3rd
Junior Girls - 4th

Athalia Magana - 18:39
Jennifer Park - 19:34
Monique Gavilanes - 20:00
Jessica Kim - 20:10
Audrey Lee - 20:50

Ganesh Tilve - 15:57
Joshua Quarles - 16:29
Jonathan Carranza - 16:38
Andrew Shen - 16:49
Mike Tran - 16:52
Ian Chiang - 16

The Dons raised the bar as they were able to lead the Suburban League in the distances in track and field. The Dons emerged as a powerhouse in the 800m, taking 7 of the 12 medals and four of the six CIF entries. The lady Dons composed almost half the fields in the 800m and 1600m and in some cases over half, in an effort that will be remembered for some time. The Dons compiled 13 medals + 11 medals from individuals in the relays, 4 individual league championships plus one relay championship (all distance), and will qualify six athletes in seven events at CIF, plus two in the relays. Amazing job Dons!

400m
Moriah Pleasant - GFS 3rd Place

800m
Isis Christopher - GFS Champion - League Record
Caroline Luu - GFS Runner Up
Bose Amosun - GFS 3rd Place

Connie Caliz - GV Champion
Jessica Sunio - GV Runner up
Audrey lee - GV 3rd Place

Ian Chiang - BV 3rd Place

1600m
Isis Christopher - GFS Champion
Erika Resultay - GFS Runner Up

Raymond Lim - BFS Runner Up - NEW F/S SCHOOL RECORD

Jessica Sunio - GV 3rd Place

3200m
Erika Resultay - GFS Champion

3200m CIF Qualifiers - Kathia Avila (Scratch), Gina Tai, Jennifer Park (Scratch), Athlia Magana

4x400m
GFS Champions - ALL DISTANCE
(Christopher, Amosun, Pleasant, Seong)

BFS 3rd Place
(Lim, A. Patel)

GV 2nd Place
(Sunio, A. Lee, Flores)

BV 2nd Place
(Chiang, P. Luu)

After a grueling Suburban League Prelims in the high 80s, the Suburban League Track & Field League finals will take place at La Mirada High School on Thursday at 3pm (Field) and 4pm (Track). Numerous athletes from Cerritos will be competing for all-league honors, league championships, as well as CIF qualifying. The Dons had a great day on Tuesday, including having half the field in the GFS 1600, GV 1600, GV 800, and 3/8 in the GFS 800.

Mt. SAC Invitational

The girls varsity team, broke the Cerritos HS school record in the 4x1600m. While the mark is not as low as most schools, the team accomplished it without their #2 (Avila) and #4 (Tai) 1600m athletes on the season.

Jessica Sunio (12) (CHS#1 1600m) - 5:25
Connie Caliz (10) (CHS#3 1600m) - 5:44
Isis Christopher (10) (CHS#8 1600m) - 5:48
Athalia Magana (11) (CHS#5 1600m) - 5:51

The Dons found success as they begin to find their season/career PRs as we head into the final weeks of the season. The average improvement towards the end of the season (W8-CIF) for athletes is 8-13 seconds for girls and 6-11 seconds for boys.

Jessica Sunio came through her split at 5:25. In her last Mt. SAC relay she ran 5:37 and finished CIF with a 5:24. Based on this, we're aiming in the range of 5:14-5:19. By implementing an increased cross training program this week, we should see the results come CIF.

Connie Caliz runs better in a head-to-head environment. In fact, this season, Sunio and Caliz have split head-to-head matchups, with the two never separated by more than two seconds. Her 5:44 is disappointing, however, when it come down to the bigger races, Caliz has the potential for the largest improvement similar to the top two times in school history of Villegas and Alarid. The potential is there to drop to that range.

Villegas (2006) - 5:33 (Before SLF) - 5:24 (SLF) - 5:17 (CIF)
Alarid (2007) - 5:44 (Before SLF) - 5:37 (SLF) - 5:21 (CIF)

Isis Christopher may have been the #8 1600m runner on the team heading into the week, but the potential was shown in her first two 1600m ever. Christopher was hesitant and still has the potential for a greater time. Her progress chart shows an improvement in just a few weeks in her three 1600m of 2011: 6:19-6:02-5:48. Could a sub-5:40 be in the cards in combination with a 2:24-2:29 800m?

Athalia Magana had a hard time transitioning into the 2011 track season, starting late and missing a week in the season. Despite some training during that week in Central Park, the workouts were not the same and set her back a bit. After her 5:47 GFS league championship race, Magana has worked back towards that mark and will also look at dipping under the 5:40 mark this season.

On the boys side, Raymond Lim's progression makes us analyze where he will end up by the end of the season. Last year, Lim set his PR at 5:22. With some development as a frosh-soph athlete, he dropped his time below 5:10, and has begun to see his time drop 4:55-4:53-4:50 in his last three races (excluding the full mile at CHS). As a sophomore, while his times aren't spectacular, his progression is noticeable and with the normal progress, a 4:39-4:44 is possible at this point in his career come league finals. Our early goal was 4:50-4:55, looks like we'll have to reanalyze.

Season Commentary - Athlete Development for CXC/Distance Athletes

Sometimes, it's more than just talent.

It's hard to argue that you can be a star runner without talent. However, in some ways, our program has seen the development of athletes who may not run collegiate level times, but have worked hard enough to try to make themselves competitive in a mid-to-lower-mileage program that will allow them to find greater improvement when they reach the collegiate stage.

CASE STUDY: Thien-Nam To
As a freshman, Thien-Nam To did not show high-caliber distance potential. While we knew he could be a varsity athlete, the potential to be one of the fastest in school history, was not as definite. However, as he progressed through the training cycles of the program and on to a collegiate program, he showed how he could blossom. By slowly increasing his mileage and intensity, he reached his peak recently and still is looking to be moving forward and upward.

9th - 18:40
10th - 16:21 (Large Variable Between PR and Worst Times)
11th - 15:40 (Large Variable Between PR and Worst Times)
12th - 15:14 (Race Consistency Improved Dramatically)
Collegiate - 25:57 (8k)

By establishing good basic skills and work habits early, with the ability to mentally and physically handle workouts, the potential for growth with the increase in quantity and intensity can be limitless. It is important for athletes to understand that you can develop if you follow the system (including the additions) from start to finish.

The Dons added another 23 career personal records and eight season PRs among the 44 events contested Saturday. Twenty five of the 30 athletes competing found their way to a personal record of some sort with thirteen medals adding to the company on the way back.

The fastest times amongst the group was a 2:25 from Jessica Sunio, who, despite a sub-par performance, still squeezed out a good race, while Ganesh Tilve ran to the second fastest freshmen-sophomore level time in school history at 10:09.

While we have begun to progress, there is much progress to be made, as the athletes hope to continue to head towards their peak in the next few weeks.

Coaches,
I know it's been awhile, however, the board is back! After touring the east coast (Orlando, Washington DC, New York), I have been able to get you up-to-date with our program.

In the past week, the team has found its way to over 70 new carreer personal records, 30 season personal records, and numerous near personal records for those who did not set personal records.

At our most recent invitational, our medalists in fields of 20-30 included:

Jessica Sunio (12) - 1st, 800m
Ian Chiang (11) - 1st, 800m
Kathia Avila (11) - 1st, 1600m; 2nd, 3200m
Joshua Suh (11) - 2nd, 800m
Isis Christopher (10) - 2nd, 1600m; 3rd, 800m
Bose Amosun (10) - 3rd, 1600m
Audrey Lee (11) - 3rd, 1600m

We look forward to a few upcoming races along with our break for spring break before heading into league, CIF, and for those athletes who continue on, to post-season non-school competitions (Junior Olympics).

Best of luck to you and your athletes.

WALNUT, CA - The gun sounded, as the lady Dons were no where to be seen at the line. From the shadows of the masses, however, the Dons reappeared after starting from behind the rest of the field. The lady Dons were told that they could do a stride and as they did, the race began - without them. The lady Dons hurried to catch stride with the rest of the field, yet never really positioned themselves where they had hoped. However, the Dons still managed a third place finish behind the 19:39-19:43 efforts of Gina Tai and Jessica Sunio. The rest of the pack was not as lucky as the first two, as they were eaten by the pack early on, left only to use their energy to work they way back to the front leaving them stuck between 21:14 and 21:53, far off their goal paces. In the sophomore girls race, Connie Caliz also finished under 22 minutes.

The boys also were a bit out of position with two of their top seven missing from the varsity races. However, the 1-2-3 finish of the Dons was oddly familiar behind sophomore Ganesh Tilve (17:00), senior Jonathan Liang, and Matthew Chern heading the charge. The junior varsity boys had the best performances with Keith Domon and Kelvin Huang leading the way, while the freshmen boys were paced by Frank Lee and Joshua Quarles.

WALNUT, CA – The Dons will be one of 546 teams competing at the 63rd annual Mt. SAC Invitational held at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Ca. Over 20,000 will compete in 104 races that are separated by an average of eight minutes across the two days of the meet. Cerritos will be represented by the second largest contingent at the entire meet and the largest on Friday’s session, which plays host to Division 3-5 teams, a division determined by school enrollment.

The boys will compete in Race #18 (Green) where they will face defending Arizona state champion (Division 5A-II) Ironwood Ridge, Palos Verdes (CA-SS DIII #3), Buena Park (CA-SS DIII #8), Corona del Mar (CA-SS DIII #10), and Cabrillo of Lompoc (CA-SS DIII #12).  Despite facing a similar heat in 2009, the Dons were able to fare well and even with a younger squad, hope for similar results.

The girls will also face Ironwood Ridge who also won the Arizona state championship in Division5A-II along with the fourth place team in that division Marcos De Niza in race #19 where 31 teams are scheduled to compete. Sarah Miville, the defending state champion from Ironwood Ridge is expected to be the leader of the race, with fellow Arizonian Natalie Jones of Marcos de Niza projected to be among the leaders.

The younger Dons will compete in age level races (freshmen, sophomore) in which Cerritos has been quite successful. In 2009, Cerritos won the girls freshmen race and were runner ups in the girls sophomore race. The Dons hope for similar success despite missing a few key runners.  Juniors and seniors not running in the varsity race will be placed in the open junior varsity races, which will start off the meet on Friday.

   SOUTH EL MONTE, CA - The Dons raced the competition at the Bell Gardens Invitational at Whittier Narrows Park.  With no team competitions involved, the Dons raced for individuals personal records. Of the seventy athletes racing, over thirty of them set a personal record on the day including 14 of the 16 top PRs by freshmen.
   Senior Gina Tai tied her PR of 18:47 in winning the senior girls race, pulling away in the last 600m of the race, while junior Kathia Avila passed Megan Nevarez of Downey who ran 18:26 at the Non-League Dual ten days prior. Avila's effort allowed her to take second in 19:16 and also moved her up the hall of fame list to #10.
   Sophomore Ganesh Tilve led the Dons as he raced in the earlier senior boys race due to a scheduling conflict. His 16:06 allowed him to finish 12th among the seniors, passing all but one athlete from Norwalk, previewing what could be an plus for the Dons come league finals. The time also allowed Ganesh to move up to #11 on the hall of fame
   The Dons will now prepare for the Mt. SAC Invitational on Friday, October 22, 2010 where they will take on their fellow Division III opponents.