The Mission Valley Athletic League (MVAL) cross country championship took over Quarry Lakes in Fremont on Wednesday, Nov. 5.
With eight high schools from the greater Tri-City area from Fremont, Newark, Union City and Hayward, each race was packed with 50 to 80 runners.
Among all the runners, a few high schools continued to stand out in the top three of each race. Newark Memorial, Moreau Catholic and American High School were the top three schools that repeatedly came out top.
In the girls junior varsity race Moreau Catholic’s Angela Valle came in first with a 13:22.8 time, with two American runners 30 seconds behind. In the boys’ JV race Jeremy Oglimen and Justin Wei showed up to show some James Logan representation while taking first and third place, respectively. However, Newark Memorial’s Jonathan Benitez took second place, keeping Newark’s lone high school in the top.
The much anticipated varsity races took on the second half of the meet.
Newark, American and Moreau dominated the first six slots on the finishers board. Newark’s senior Alice McCarty took first place in the 5k with a time of 19:19.2. This is McCarty’s second year winning first place title. Behind McCarty was Phoebe Luo of American at 19:40.4 and another Newark Cougar Kaitlyn Chan in third at 19:47.1. In fourth through sixth came Brianna Su, American; Sadie Cotten, Moreau Catholic and Nirupama Balaji, American.
In the boys varsity race senior Kenji Kawabata, another Newark Cougar, claimed first place with a time of 15:34.9 in the MVAL league championship. This is a repeat win for Kawabata as he also won the 2024 title. In second place came lone Washington Huskie, Ansih Gopisetty, at 15:53.9, followed by Santiago Henriquez of Moreau Catholic at 16:00.1. Still in the top six were Mohammed Lulu of Newark, Evrin Wasser of American and Cruz Villa of Newark.
Overall, American and Newark Memorial High Schools took first and second place, respectively, in four out the five events of the league championship.
