Monrovia Wildcats Nearing Finish Line with Finals Meet on the Horizon

–Courtesy Photo

By Aaron Valdez

The Monrovia cross country team’s season has almost come to an end as two of its total 23 runners will individually compete at the 2018 CIF-SS Ford Cross Country Championship Finals on Saturday.

It’s been a long but fruitful season for the Wildcats who donned the smallest roster in the Rio Hondo League. The team was riddled with injuries and illness but Head Coach Nolan Shaheed lauded their efforts for staying the course the entire way through.

“We were very dedicated and the students were very cooperative in trying to make it to CIF,” Shaheed said.

Alaina Peters and Roberto Soto were the only Wildcats to advance to this Saturday’s finals meet after a strong showing at the prelims on Friday. Peters came in second place in her heat at the prelims while Soto’s performance narrowly qualified him for the last remaining spot in the finals meet.

Despite the lack of team depth – which greatly hurt Monrovia in terms of scoring – Shaheed is proud that his teams always have the most scholar athletes of any program at the school. He said he is determined to continue this trend and further implement it into the team’s culture for years to come.

“I need to build the cross country team because we’re small,” Shaheed said. “However, my teams have always had high scholastic students and I want to keep that going because that’s the most important thing to me is that they are developing as great students.”

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