Page 9 - Sanger Herald 8-30-18 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2018
Cross country girls dominate, boys challenge at Highlander
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Emanuel Salas had never run the standard 3-mile high school cross country race.
So he didn’t exactly know what to expect when he and the rest of Sanger High’s running Apaches competed in the Highlander Invitational on Aug. 22 at Woodward Park in Fresno. Some of the best runners in the central San Joaquin Valley had shown up with schools from Bakersfield to Merced represented.
“I did better than I expected I would,” he said after the race.
In fact, Salas, a freshman, broke the 18-minute mark, scoring a personal record 17:45.29. He got a thumbs up from his younger brother Eliseo. At 3, Eliseo already wants to be a runner like his brother, their mother said.
Salas placed 22nd overall and third in the Sanger High group of runners. Adrian Cuellar and Jayden Olea, both sophomores, placed first and second for the Apaches and one after the other at 19th and 20th overall. Their times were 17:40.12 for Cuellar and 17:44.31 for Olea.
Their performance marks the launch of the
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Jennifer Recinos, Toni Payton and Alondra Huerta help their team to first place.
participated in the Highlander prior to this year. “We wanted to get a feel for the course early,” he said. Woodward Park is the site of many cross country competitions, especially in the post season. “It’s been one of our better summers, and we’ve got a huge girls’ team.”
While only the top girls participated in the varsity contest, the majority ran in the junior varsity race. And the Apaches made a statement there, placing second through 12th. They were led by sophomore Juliet Garza with 22:52.36 minutes for second overall. Melody Salazar, a freshman, placed third with 23:28.72 and senior Anna Yang fourth with 24:00.67.
Junior Megan Payton placed fifth with 24:05.08, and soon after the race took off her shoes. “I always go barefoot,” she said. “It feels better.”
Payton said she ran a 10 kilometer race barefoot once, in Las Vegas. It was winter and “really cold.” As for the JV race, she said she hasn’t been doing as well as she’d like in practice but getting fifth was nice.
Recinos said the heat was a factor for her. “It’s too hot,” she said. Then she and her twin sister Jessica,
who placed 17th overall in varsity with 22:13.25 for a personal record, started talking about the team’s training retreat earlier in the summer at Mammoth.
“It was nothing compared to Mammoth hills,”Jennifer said. “(We) always say Mammoth is worse.”
“The hills,” Jessica said, adding that she could have done better in the Woodward race. “I guess it got to me,” she said, referring to the heat. “Next time, I hope I’m right by Jennifer.”
Jennifer predicted big things for the girls this season. “It’s a strong team,” she said.
Sophomore Jahari Garcia had just returned from two weeks vacationing in Mexico where she said the food was fantastic. But the experience left her a little out of shape. She ran the junior varsity race, finishing seventh with 24:20.42 minutes. “My slowest time ever at Woodward,” she said.
However, she also talked about the Mammoth training session. In a previous story, her culinary exploits of the previous year’s retreat had been mentioned. She had tried cooking for the entire team
See XC, Page 2B
year for the Sanger cross country team’s competitive season and a strong start for the boys. The girls are again expected to dominate, and they did at the Highlander, placing first overall in the team scores for the varsity and junior varsity races. The boys varsity placed third and junior varsity fifth.
Cuellar said the heat had an effect. While the temperature didn’t reach the triple digits like many of the days in the recent past, it was a factor,
hovering about 90 degrees. “I’m still trashed,” Cuellar said. “I wanted to
break 17 (minutes).”
“It was fun,” Olea said.
“Because I had Adrian to push me.” Olea also earned a personal record time. He and Cuellar traded the lead a couple times.
The girls team again proved itself one of the best in the region, gaining a reputation for bringing top- performing runners every year. Sophomore Kayley Cardenas placed fourth in the varsity race with
20:53.42 minutes, leading the Apaches. Sophomore Jennifer Recinos came in second for Sanger and seventh overall with 21:32.58 minutes and senior Toni Payton third and 13th overall with 22:00.13.
“Tough race for sure,” Cardenas said. “The heat. (But) after you block that out, I feel the race was easier to do. I’m content with my performance, but I still want more. This is just the beginning.”
Coach Sean Marzolf said his team had never
Sanger unloads arsenal at Bullpups
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
As Sanger Banger fans left Hanford after the Apaches’ drubbing of the hometown Bullpups 48-28, talk inside the SUVs, cars and crew cabs likely gravitated to the particulars of the varsity football contest.
On their return, Sanger master statistician Ron Blackwood and his official spotter Ruben Bravo certainly contemplated plays that contributed to the win that gave the Apaches a 2-0 start. Blackwood called them “nails in the coffin,” reflecting the overall one- sidedness of the game in Sanger’s favor.
Both agreed with one assumption, that the Apaches’ impenetrable goal-line defense, for the second straight week, as seconds of the first half ticked ever so slowly to zero, debilitated the Bullpups’ momentum. Or anything they could throw together.
Keeping Hanford from scoring on that drive was one big nail, and it kept the score a manageable 21-7 in the Apaches’ favor at the half.
But Blackwood and Ruben then began listing one standout play after another, each by a different Apache, showing that the win was shared amongst quite a large crew and underlining the concept head coach Jorge Pena likes to talk about in locker room meetings.
The team win.
Here’s how Caleb Bravo, an owner of Maverick’s Screen Printing and team promoter, succinctly spelled out some of the highlights of how Apache athletes accomplished that victory.
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
In one of a number of key Apache performances in Hanford by various players, Jake Boust pulls down a pass from Noel Collazo early in the game.
“Kosi (Agina) had a monster game in the backfield with over 130 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries and an interception,” Bravo wrote in a post-game discussion. “(Orlando) Douglas had 65 yards rushing with two touchdowns. (Jake) Boust had three catches for 56 yards.
“Dolce Calandra had a unbelievable 46-yard touchdown catch between the pressure of two (Bullpup) defenders, and
the defense had a HUGE goalie stop just before the half at the 4-yard line to deflate any chance of Hanford getting any kind of momentum.”
These events led to that goal-line stop. Agina, a junior wide receiver and running back, had thoroughly demoralized Hanford with his 65-yard run for a touchdown with 5:25 minutes left in the second quarter and just seconds after Bullpups’ junior quarterback Juaron
Watts-Brown threw a 7-yard pass to Carson Verhoeven for the first Hanford score.
Hanford coach Josh Young in the final minutes played senior quarterback Joseph Estrella, who helped move his team downfield into scoring position as time in the first half ran out. Hanford sophomore running back Luttrell Young pushed the ball upfield with a couple good gains, and both times Apache junior linebacker Pierce Jones tackled him.
Hanford junior Daylon Davis got the ball, but senior Apache linebacker Gabriel Webb stopped him for minimal gain.
Then Estrella passed to Verhoeven, who made it all the way to Sanger’s 7-yard line. Hanford’s sideline and fans increased their cheering volume noticeably as it appeared their team would score.
But Pierce scrambled through Hanford’s offensive line and sacked Estrella on the 19-yard
line with 16 seconds on the clock. That sent a jolt through Sanger’s fans, who appeared to outnumber the home crowd, and they turned up the volume.
But Estrella wasn’t done, passing again to Verhoeven to the 4-yard line with 9 seconds remaining. Senior safety Isaiah Gaucin, assisted by another Apache, made the final tackle as seconds expired.
After the game, Jones,
See Football, Page 2B