Fresno City, Sequoias Runners Star At Meet

BY ANTHONY GALAVIZ

The Fresno Bee

Marty Rowell set his sights on JC cross country's honor roll.

Yesenia Silva wanted just a little more.

In the end, both are considered All-Americans -- even if Silva fell agonizingly short of her ultimate goal at the state community college championship meet Saturday.

Fresno City's Rowell was 10th on the 4-mile Woodward Park course in 20:34, a race won by Luis Luna of American River in 19:59.

Luna also helped the Beavers win the team title for the fourth consecutive year -- totaling 72 points. Fresno City came in 16th, while Sequoias men were 17th.

Silva, on the other hand, entered with realistic hopes of an individual women's championship. The COS freshman won the NorCal meet two weeks ago and Saturday led throughout much of the 3-mile race.

Laura Aceves of East Los Angeles, however, caught her at the last half-mile mark and won in 17:43. Silva was second in 17:46.

Fifteen minutes after the race, Silva was coming to grips with missing out on becoming COS' first women's state champion.

"I was trying to get away from her," said the former Exeter High star. "I think that (coming from behind) was her plan. I am disappointed, but I did what I had to do.

"You have to learn from this."

The Orange Coast women took the state title with 73 points -- the team's 12th overall and second straight. The Giants finished 21st with 482 points.

As for Rowell, he ran at his own comfortable pace in reaching the top 10 -- the top 14 are considered All-Americans.

"Very content on where I finished," he said. "Part of me can't wait to get back to it. Great finish. (The goal was to) start off at a pace I can keep and go from there (and) just keep picking people off."

The reporter can be reached at (559) 441-6042, agalaviz@fresnobee.com or @agalaviz_TheBee on Twitter.