CVC2000

The Giants and Lady Giants traveled to Modesto on Friday to compete in the Central Valley Conference Championships and came away with unparalleled personal improvements and a first place team finish for the men and a second place team finish for the women.

Led by the fast pace set early in the race by Mario, Jose, and Ben, the Giants passed the two mile mark at 9:45 and completed the 4 mile Tuolumne Regional Park course scoring the lowest team score in CVC Championship history, 17 points. Macias was the overall race winner with teammates Jose Palacios, Ben Sanchez, Juan Vazquez, and Arturo Lopez placing 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th. Leo Palacios placed 7th while teammates Josh Shafer, Russell Bassett, and Nathan Wyckoff raced to 13th, 16th, and 19th place finishes.

Mario's time of 19:54 set a new course record, as he and Jose and Ben all ran under Mario's previous course record of 20:20. The conference win marks the fifth consecutive CVC Championship for the Giant men. Modesto scored 52 points and third place Fresno followed with 65.

Kristie Gonzales paced the Lady Giants and placed second in the 3 mile race with teammates Araceli Garcia placing 3rd, Angelica Casas finishing 4th, Angel Gaines racing to a 6th place finish, Melissa Hernandez finishing 18th, and Anna Garcia placing 19th. The overall winner of the women's race was Sirena Alvarez of Modesto Junior College, but she was led the first half of the race by Kristi and battled with her the last half, only out-kicking Kristie in the last 75 yards. Every Lady Giant runner improved her time over the course since the last race there 2 weeks ago, with Angel's improvement being a whopping minute and 16 seconds. The Lady Giants scored 33 points to winning Modesto's 30 and third place Fresno's 65.