Scorching heat can’t stop the Swarm

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

Christopher Acero
Colton
10
19:33.5
13/80

Brianna Jimenez
Colton
10
22:59.9
10/67

Abran Ramirez
Colton
12
23:09.0
52/81

Diana Vera
Colton
12
23:32.2
10/45

Daniel Montes
Colton
12
24:07.1
57/81

Diana Ruvalcaba
Colton
10
25:14.6
27/67

Marcus Perez
Colton
11
25:36.4
46/70

Yara Vera
Colton
10
25:39.4
29/67

Carlos Mazariegos
Colton
10
25:41.9
69/80

Logan Martinez
Colton
9
26:19.5
47/52

Dominic Rodriguez
Colton
11
27:05.9
56/70

Anthony Davalos
Colton
10
27:37.5
74/80

Sebastian Tabares
Colton
10
27:41.3
75/80

Denise Moncada
Colton
10
28:21.1
51/67

Sara Lopez-Lopez
Colton
11
33:35.7
41/49

 

Top Finishers

Senior Girls – 3.1 Mile

Lizet Gonzalez
Elsinore
12
21:34.3
1

Azucena Lemus
Canyon Springs
12
22:04.3
2

Sophia Giron
Oak Hills
12
22:10.1
3

Aiyana Harris
Redlands
12
22:23.4
4

Precious De La Rosa
Arroyo Valley
12
22:31.2
5

Tesoro Delacerra-m
Alta Loma
12
22:37.6
6

Alondra Ruiz
Moreno Valley
12
23:13.1
7

Isabel Vega
Elsinore
12
23:26.1
8

Grace Dorado
Oak Hills
12
23:28.9
9

Diana Vera
Colton
12
23:32.2
10

Senior Boys – 3.1 Mile

Logan Mendez
Littlerock
12
16:53.0
1

Jesse Ocampo
Elsinore
12
16:53.1
2

Jonathan Guerra
Littlerock
12
17:06.2
3

Omar Arroyo
Heritage
12
17:12.6
4

Raye Duarte
Oak Hills
12
17:17.4
5

Leonardo Lopez
Littlerock
12
17:27.4
6

Rionn Hudson Watson
Oak Hills
12
17:53.8
7

Biruk Abebe
Canyon Springs
12
17:59.7
8

Javier Villegas Ma
Rialto
12
18:38.7
9

Luke Catherwood
Oak Hills
12
18:40.5
10

Junior Girls – 3.1 Mile

Brianna Machuca
Rialto
11
23:25.4
1

Lauren Mendoza
Redlands
11
24:25.2
2

Kassandra Torres
Rialto
11
24:38.3
3

Jazmine Morales Diego
Fontana
11
24:45.8
4

Bianca Peralta
Alta Loma
11
24:54.0
5

Isbella Medina
Heritage
11
24:55.8
6

Valeria Gomez
Elsinore
11
25:07.9
7

Meili Stroud
Hemet
11
25:11.9
8

Liliana Wilson
Arroyo Valley
11
25:36.1
9

Sylvana Vazquez
San Gorgonio
11
26:10.6
10

Junior Boys – 3.1 Mile

Micah Watson
Fontana
11
17:14.0
1

Alberto Iniguez
Littlerock
11
18:01.6
2

Nicolas Juarez Cuahutle
Fontana
11
18:11.6
3

Neal Connelly
Redlands
11
18:33.2
4

Hector De Dios-Perez
Fontana
11
18:40.9
5

Javier Torres-Reyes
San Gorgonio
11
18:44.7
6

Oscar Castellanos Garcia
Eisenhower
11
18:54.5
7

Diego Sanchez
Notre Dame
11
19:11.9
8

Manuel Perrez
Eisenhower
11
19:26.6
9

Andrew Loera
Oak Hills
11
19:44.0
10

Soph Girls – 3.1 Mile

Gabriela Rodriguez
Rialto
10
20:59.6
1

Lexi Palacios
Alta Loma
10
21.13.1
2

Valeria Pacheco
Eastside
10
21:32.0
3

Chloe Brubaker
Alta Loma
10
21:57.5
4

Savannah Flores
Arroyo Valley
10
22:12.4
5

Lilus Montes
Redlands
10
22:14.8
6

Mia Sanchez
Oak Hills
10
22:23.9
7

Monica Argueta
Eastside
10
22:41.7
8

Victoria Loyo
Bloomington
10
22:51.8
9

Brianna Jimenez
Colton
10
22:59.9
10

Soph Boys – 3.1 Mile

Kallen Gragg
Redlands
10
17:30.8
1

Owen Teague
Hemet
10
17:33.3
2

Brayden Choi
Redlands
10
18:00.1
3

Matthew Barrera
Fontana
10
18:15.1
4

Oscar Hernandez
Arroyo Valley
10
18:17.7
5

Diego King
Alta Loma
10
18:19.6
6

Aiden Morales
Elsinore
10
18:21.1
7

Drew Anderson
Redlands
10
18:25.8
8

Sean De Anda
Alta Loma
10
18:32.5
9

Noah Navarez
Eisenhower
10
19:02.4
10

Frosh Girls – 3.1 Mile

Olivia Alvarez
AB Miller
9
20:45.1
1

Gabriella Loza
Hemet
9
21:04.0
2

Yamilet Lopez
Bloomington
9
21:28.3
3

Tristen Brueggeman
Elsinore
9
22:20.2
4

Alexzia Sahagun
Arroyo Valley
9
22:44.2
5

Bernice Juarez
Arroyo Valley
9
22:46.1
6

Grace Sclafani
Alta Loma
9
22:49.7
7

Alyssa Segura
Hemet
9
23:31.9
8

Jazmin Flores
Canyon Springs
9
24:00.5
9

Savannah Ferguson
Elsinore
9
24:03.9
10

Frosh Boys – 3.1 Mile

Curren Gomez
Eastside
9
19:49.0
1

David Hernandez
Canyon Springs
9
20:04.8
2

Christopher Santoscoy
Canyon Springs
9
20:08.5
3

Ernesto Ramirez
Elsinore
9
20:08.6
4

David Camargo
Redlands
9
20:10.0
5

Robert Hernandez
Alta Loma
9
20:27.0
6

John Mark Reyes
Rialto
9
20:41.9
7

Luis Alvarez
Fontana
9
20:43.0
8

Eudier Leano
San Gorgonio
9
20:44.8
9

Gaige Anderson
Sultana
9
20:59.0
10