CLOVIS::

Bitter-Sweet In Fresno
Braves Finish Respectable In 3rd, But Goals Aren't Met

Traveling the four hour drive to Fresno for this year's Clovis Invitational the Brave's cross country team had high hopes of racing to fast times and making an impressive showing. During the race however, the Braves seemed to struggle through what seemed to be a lackluster performance. When the race was over the Braves were pleased with their 3rd place finish, but each and everyone of them knew that they hadn't accomplished as much as they could have. In the end the Braves overall weren't impressed with themselves but took away the knowledge that they are able to compete with the very best if racing on all cylinders.

Leading the way for his team, having an almost flawless race, was junior Randy Skillens. He finished in a very respectable 9th place overall behind some of the best runners in the entire state. His time of 15:46 breaks his own school record and sets him up for what could be a stellar race at the Mt. SAC Invitational in two weeks. Backing up Skillens were seniors Luis Uribe (16:31) and Ephraim Barrios (16:32). Uribe had an admittedly "tired" race, and it showed as fell back into 42nd place after racing two places behind Skillens through 1.5 miles. His success this season will surely help him rebound as he is determined to be one of the best in the division. Improving on last years invitational time by 33 seconds Barrios also had what seemed to be a semi-off race. Improving drastically however were juniors Kevin Urak (16:39) and Luis Perez (16:41). Urak improved his time by 1:09 to recapture the 4th man spot for his team that had eluded him over the past two races. Improving an astonishing 1:39 over last year Perez once again showed why he is one of the main reasons that his team has had so much success this year. Rounding out the top seven for the Braves were seniors Jon Sandoval (17:02) and Mahesh Gandhi (17:08).

In Junior Varsity action Alex Wood had a strong performance to lead his squad to a 2nd place finish.