BHS Cross Country: Aztecs open season with win

BARSTOW • The Sultana High School cross country runners made plans to eat at In-N-Out Burger after finishing their first dual meet of the year against Barstow High School.

Meanwhile, the Barstow boys cross country made a point of getting in and out during the race on Wednesday.

In their season opener, the Aztecs took the top five spots to beat Sultana 15-43. Sultana won the girls race 15-50.

A.J. Kanczel, Joshua Gomez, Ian Barba, Andrew Romano and Isaac Chavez all finished within a second of each other. Romano, Chavez and Barba formed a pack and began to separate themselves midway through the race. Kanczel and Gomez were able to slowly pick up the pace and join their teammates for the finish around 18 minutes, 35 seconds.

“We were surprised at our times today,” Kanczel said. “We thought we took it a little bit easier.”

In a season in which the Aztecs are aiming for their sixth CIF title and a trip to the Nike Cross  Nationals, Barstow coach Jim Duarte said he was pleased with his team’s performance. It marked one of the better group performances in team history. Four Barstow runners finished at 18:20 in 2005. Traditionally, the Aztecs have waited until later in the season to finish as a group.

“A.J. being there, that’s a huge deal,” Duarte said. “As long as they have that attitude that ‘I have to catch up to my teammates,’ that bodes well for the big races at the end of the year.”

As the first group of runners passed Sultana coach John Mahr early in the race, he yelled out to Barstow, “Now take it easy on us.”

At that point Mahr had two runners running with Barstow’s pack. As the race went on those runners faded.

Having lost Brett Walters, who is attending Colorado, and a host of other seniors, Mahr openly admits his team is rebuilding. With Jesse Lopez and Freddy Torres, who were alternates on last year’s varsity squad, Mahr said his runners performed well on what he calls “the hardest course in the United States” against the “one of the toughest teams in the United States.”

“Everything’s a piece of cake from that point on for us,” Mahr said. “We are ready to go.

“They went and ran their own races. They did a very good job. They ran exactly how we asked them to. They probably ran a little bit harder than we thought they would.”

On the girls side, Sultana’s Hannah Munyan ran one of the best girls times in the history of Barstow’s course, beating her closest competition by nearly two minutes. Munyan distanced herself early in the race and never had a close competitor with a 21:26 finish.

Eleven Sultans crossed the finish line before any Barstow runner. Jessica Akkerman finished first for the Aztecs, who had just three runners and didn’t field a team, at 28:11.

BOYS
Barstow 15, Sultana 43
Barstow
1. Kanczel, 18:35; 2. Gomez, 18:35; 3. Barba, 18:35; 4. Romana, 18:36; 5. Chavez, 18:36.
Sultana
6. Lopez, 19:14; 7. Carrell, 19:50; 8. Hunter, 20:05; 10. Torres, 20:12; 12. Minton, 21:33.

GIRLS
Sultana 15, Barstow 50
Barstow
12. Akkerman, 28:11; 16. Rodriguez, 32:00 17. Manzanaves, 34:03
Sultana
1. Munyan, 22:08; 2. Bird, 23:02; 3. Harrison, 23:28; 4. Higuchi, 24:58; 5. Robinson, 25:46.