Schwartz shows a lot at Hart
| Sunday, Nov 02 2008 01:12 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:56 PM
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Ridgeview's Tijerra Lynch gives it her all down the final stretch and finishes first in the varsity Kern County cross country championships, which was held at Hart Park Saturday afternoon.
Foothill's Chris Schwartz, right, leads the pack during Saturday's Kern County cross country championships, at Hart Park. Schwartz went onto win.
As Foothill senior Chris Schwartz crossed the finish line in a near sprint, junior varsity spectators stood there and watched with envious looks on their faces.
There was little doubt that Schwartz -- the defending CIF Division I state champion -- would win the Kern County Cross Country championship Saturday. But even though he did what everyone expected, he still had people in awe, finishing in a time of 14 minutes, 59.76 seconds.
The course at Hart Park may have been soggy from the morning's showers, but it did little to faze Schwartz in winning his third county title.
"I'm pretty satisfied," Schwartz said. "The race was fun, even though there were a lot of wet spots. I don't mind water very much. It was fun, not a big deal."
Schwartz's victory highlighted a morning full of accomplishments.
McFarland easily won the boys team title with 25 points and had four runners -- Alfonso Cisneros, Eddie Garcia, Francisco Nava, and Marco Perez -- finish in the top five.
Meanwhile, Ridgeview, led by sophomore champion Tijerra Lynch, won the girls title with a score of 40.
Neither McFarland coach Amador Ayon nor Ridgeview coach Adam Setser was willing to put much stock into his team's win. Instead, both were focused on the future.
After taking third at last year's Division IV state meet, McFarland is intent on winning it this year. Ridgeview, undefeated in the Southwest Yosemite League, is on the cusp of the program's first league championship and looks forward to what it can beyond that.
"I told the girls that this was a great performance, but our goal is doing well at league, doing well at Valley, and then we'll see at state," Setser said. "We can't get too excited about what we did today."
Said Ayon: "It was a good performance, but we still have bigger and better goals ahead of us. I'm happy for the kids. They ran well."
Perhaps slightly against Setser's wishes, Lynch, who finished in time of 18:58.20, had reason to be ecstatic. And who could blame the first-year phenom after posting a personal best by 26 seconds? Lynch crossed the line just ahead of Shafter's Elizabeth Whittenberg, who ran a time of 19:02.63.
"It was a painful race, and there was some good competition," Lynch said. "That top four pack was really good."
Besides Lynch and Whittenberg, the four pack included Monica Guzman of Garces and North's Cecilia Lopez. The four of them stayed together until about a half mile remaining, when Lynch and Whittenberg pulled away.
Lynch, dealing with nagging shin injuries, persevered and managed to win the race with a personal best. The way she tells it, she wasn't going to be denied.
"You can't let those small things get to you," Lynch said. "You just have to try your hardest, and I'm not settling for anything less than that. I can't just go out there and give up. You got to push right through it."
