Atwater cross country sweeps Merced County Championships

The host Atwater High School boys and girls cross country teams swept the 12th annual Merced County Championships on Saturday.

The Falcons boys totaled 26 team points and were led by Alex Vargas in fourth place (16 minutes, 3 seconds) and Ozzy Nava in fifth (16:05). Buhach Colony (55) and Golden Valley (62) finished second and third, respectively.

In the girls race, Atwater finished with 28 points. Golden Valley (41) and Buhach Colony (57) finished second and third, respectively.

The Falcons were led by freshmen Kelsey Valencia (19:46) in fifth and Clara Harman (19:49) in sixth.

Merced’s Daniel Ambriz continued to destroy course records, as he trimmed more than 20 seconds off the best time on Atwater’s 3-mile course with a clocking of 15:03 to win the title. Teammate Julian Johnson (15:36) placed second, and Golden Valley’s Guillermo Rivas (15:58) was third.

Merced sophomore Ciara Colon crossed the finish line in 17:58, the third-fastest time ever on the course and the best time since 2007, to win the girls title. Teammate Quinn Hagerman placed second in 18:12. Golden Valley freshman Josette Vigil (18:53) finished third and Livingston’s Daisy Perez (19:20) fourth.

The Central California Conference’s third cluster meet will be held Oct. 28 at Atwater High. The Merced and Atwater boys are tied at 9-1, as are the Atwater and Turlock girls.

Golf, tennis tournaments begin Tuesday – Buhach Colony will look to win the CCC girls golf tournament Tuesday after going 10-0 in dual matches. The tournament tees off at 10:30 a.m. at the Turlock Golf & Country Club. Turlock won the midseason tournament.

The Western Athletic Conference Golf Championships will be held Tuesday at noon at Diablo Grande in Patterson. El Capitan is undefeated in conference play.

The CCC girls tennis singles tournament begins Tuesday at 9 a.m. at Golden Valley. The singles finals and doubles tournament will be held at Golden Valley on Thursday.

This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Atwater cross country sweeps Merced County Championships."