ELAC News articles
Contact: Mario Villegas, Public Affairs 323-265-8662
February 21st, 2007
ELAC’s Ogwaro Wins State Cross Country Title
Setting a new course record, Oscar Ogwaro of East Los Angeles College
captured first place at the California Community College Cross Country
Championships in Fresno.
Ogwaro ran the four-mile race in 19 minutes, 56 seconds, easily breaking the
Woodward Park course record by eight seconds. Ryan Bousquet of Orange Coast
College, who ran 20:04 in 2002, held the record.
“Oscar’s performance was as good as any that I’ve seen in my eight years of
coaching at the state meet,” ELAC Coach Aaron Junta said.
Ogwaro avoided the bad start he experienced at the 2005 state meet, when he
got tripped by another runner in the pack and fell. He was unable to make up
all the ground he lost and finished 13th.
At the 2006 meet held Nov. 18, Ogwaro was among the lead runners to reach
the treacherous point where the Woodward Park course goes from a wide start
to a narrow trail. He was the eighth runner to reach the first mile mark and
was ahead of the pack of 200 runners after two miles.
“He was in complete control the last two miles, no one else came close to
him,” Junta said.
El Camino’s Daniel Belay finished a distant second to Ogwaro, coming in at
20:15.
Remarkably, Ogwaro did not run cross country or track during his last two
years of high school. He competed for Wilson High School in El Sereno his
sophomore year before transferring to nearby Bravo Medical Magnet School in
East Los Angeles. Bravo does not field teams in cross country and track.
Ogwaro’s record-setting run was not enough to help ELAC win the team
championship, but the Huskies did finish second. They traveled to Fresno
looking to win their first title since 2002. San Bernardino Valley, the
pre-meet favorite, won the championship. San Bernardino, which won its first
state title in any sport since 1968, scored 114 points to hold off ELAC
(132) and third-place El Camino (137).
Sergio Lares also helped lead the Huskies to the second place finish, as the
sophomore from Franklin High School finished 13th with a time of 20:38.
ELAC’s Patrick Valdez (Alhambra) ran 21:04 to place 29th and Francisco
Garcia (Salesian) was clocked in 21:06 to finish 31st.
Matthew Wong (Bravo Medical Magnet), the Huskies’ fifth runner in a race in
which the top five runners from each team score, ran valiantly to overcome a
bad start by passing nearly 80 runners over the last two miles. Wong ran
21:52 and finished 84th.
ELAC was also represented by Anuar Mercado (Mountain View), who covered the
race in 22:01, and Jason Duarte (Franklin), who ran 22:20, to finish 93rd
and 120th, respectively.
“Had someone told me at the beginning of the season that we were going to
place second in state, I would have been ecstatic,” Junta said. “I really
got my hopes up when we won the team title at the Mt. San Antonio College
Invitational and took the South Coast conference meet. But I’m really happy
with the way it went.”
ELAC had two runners competing in the women’s race in freshmen Sylvia
Hernandez (Keppel) and Esmeralda Delgado (El Monte). Hernandez ran 20:15 and
Delgado turned in a 21:30 to place 59th and 119th, respectively.