Atwater girls look to end cross country streak

The drought could end today for the Atwater girls cross country team.

Atwater hasn't won a Central California Conference championship since 1978.

Today Alexie Parle's girls will take their perfect 6-0 record in dual meets to the CCC championships at Buhach Colony.

The girls will race at noon.

Atwater won all six duals handily and should have no problem wrapping up the title.

Atwater is led by Amanda Garcia, who is ranked No. 2 in the CCC.

Cassidy Heckman and Rocio Rodriguez have also helped Atwater dominate the CCC.

Heckman, Garcia, Collette Wilcox and Diana Martinez were all part of an Atwater junior varsity team that finished first at the frosh/soph section meet last year.

The favorite to win the individual title is Golden Valley's Teresa Mallory.

Other top local girls to watch include Merced's Sarah Miranda and Buhach Colony's Jennifer Ramos.

On the boys side, both Buhach Colony and Atwater come in as the teams to beat. Both teams finished with a 5-1 record in the dual meets.

Golden Valley and Los Banos are right behind at 4-2. However, Golden Valley may be running the best at the end of the season.

Golden Valley won last week's Merced County meet and have the added motivation of trying to beat their old coach Al Garcia, who is coaching at Buhach Colony this year.

Buhach Colony defeated Golden Valley by just one point last year and the bulk of the key runners are all back this season.

The top boys to watch are Atwater's Pedro Osornio, the Golden Valley duo of Rusman Purewal and Alberto Vasquez, Buhach Colony's Mark Machado, Merced's Quinn Kantor and Los Banos' Flavio Castro.

The boys race will start at 12:30 p.m.