Gallery • 15 Photos

J. Dollins

Senior Diana Vera, in her final Swarm, is overjoyed that she finished 10th in her race with a time of 23:32.2.

Colton, CA—With excessive heat advisories coming out from the National Weather Service for the Inland Empire, the 53rd annual Colton High SWARM Invitational took on a sense of urgency amidst the excitement, competition, and joy of running the three mile course.

According to Mateo Cisneros, the event’s organizer for the second consecutive year; this year’s event brought out 25 schools and over 700 runners.

To ensure runner safety in temperatures that climbed over 95 degrees by 10:00 a.m., organizers added an extra water station on the course and two additional athletic trainers from Roosevelt High and Bloomington High to work beside Colton High athletic trainer Meg Kelley and her student sports medicine team.

Colton runners performed well in their first event of the season. Senior Diana Vera placed 10th in her heat, with a time of 23:32.2, only two minutes off the first place finisher, Lizet Gonzalez of Elsinore High.

“It was pretty good towards the beginning,” Vera said about her race, “but I wanted to die towards the end.”

Sophomore Christopher Acero also placed in his heat, coming in 13th with a time of 19:33.5, a personal best by over three minutes.

Acero attributed his success to all the hard work he put in this off-season. “We’re running around like twice as much as we did last year in each practice.”

For several Yellowjacket runners this was their first cross-country race. Freshman Logan Martínez said, “I just kept on jogging and running,” he said. “It hurts, but I just kept on going because they motivated me.”

Coach Roxana Lopez was out and about all day cheering on and motivating her team. “I’m seeing a lot of resilience and a lot of strength,” she said. “It takes a lot of guts to be out here in this heat and I think they’re doing the very best they can under the circumstances, and I’ve seen really great performances today.”

Shortly after the sophomores finished racing, an announcement was made making a slight change to the course. Due to a lack of volunteers to monitor, students were diverted to run the school campus part of the course twice, taking them off the city streets.

“We definitely appreciate the number of volunteers that show up every year,” said Cisneros. “They put in so much work and through this heat. I have to give props to Link Crew and ASB for showing up and coming in this heat. I think it’s just one of those things where you can never have enough volunteers for these types of events.”

Meanwhile, with temperatures soaring, the entire event was under pressure to have all students finished running before the mercury hit 100 degrees after 11 a.m. The senior boys were the last heat to run, and they took off just under the gun at 10:30 a.m., ensuring a successful finish to the annual celebration of the Inland Empire’s cross-country athletes.

Daniel Montes, running the first event of his senior year, was thrilled with the results today. “I’m so thankful for all of you who are out there supporting us, and I’m so happy that I have such a good community that pushes me forward.”

All times are available on Finished Results.

Colton High School Times

Top Finishers

Senior Girls – 3.1 Mile

Senior Boys – 3.1 Mile

Junior Girls – 3.1 Mile

Junior Boys – 3.1 Mile

Soph Girls – 3.1 Mile

Soph Boys – 3.1 Mile

Frosh Girls – 3.1 Mile

Frosh Boys – 3.1 Mile