Ceres High’s cross country program is facing a rebuilding year this fall as talent was lost to graduation, another school and girls flag football.
The 2024 Bulldogs have a roster size of 18 student-athletes.
“It’s the smallest team I’ve had,” Ceres High head coach Owen Brown said. “You can’t keep adding sports to the fall and not expect it to reduce numbers in some of the existing fall sports rosters.”
The Bulldogs return just several runners from last season’s girls team, including Jaden Stahl (Sr.), Samira Mendoza (Sr.) and Stephanie Espinoza (Jr.).
Stahl has been named team captain.
“Jaden does push her teammates,” Brown said. “The girls see how fast she is. We’re hoping her leadership will be contagious and motivating.”
Stahl placed eighth while earning all-league honors at the Western Athletic Conference Championships a year ago. She set a personal-record of 22 minutes, 52 seconds on the 3-mile course at O’Neill Forebay. Stahl was sidelined with a foot injury leading up to the league finals.
Espinoza (25:49) and Mendoza (31:01) finished 28th and 44th, respectively, at the WAC Championships.
All-conference performer Brianna Luna (Jr.) moved to Modesto and will compete at Downey High School. She finished seventh (22:50) at the WAC finals.
“That’s a big blow to the girls team,” Brown said. “That really hurts.”
Ceres High’s top new female runners are Giselle Contreras (Sr.), Katie Amezcua (Jr.) and Brooke Kiser (Jr.).
Contreras, Amezcua and Kiser were all members of the Bulldogs’ track and field program during the springtime.
The Bulldogs return just several runners from last season’s boys team, including Martin Bolanos Aleman (Sr.), Sergio Torres (Jr.), Ivan Rodriguez (Jr.) and Christian Valadez (Jr.).
Bolanos Aleman has been named team captain.
“Martin will be faster than he was last year,” Brown said.
Bolanos Aleman placed 50th (20:44) at the 2023 WAC Championships.
Torres and Rodriguez finished first (12:06) and 44th (15:13), respectively, at the frosh-soph conference finals. Torres was awarded an all-league patch for his performance.
“We hope to see improvements from Sergio,” Brown said.
Ceres High’s top new male runners are: Issac Bravo (Sr.), Andres Marcial (Jr.), Elija Villamarin (Fr.) and Lionel Villanueva (Fr.).
Bravo did track and field last spring.
“He’s played a lot of soccer,” said Brown. “He can run. We just haven’t seen him in competition.”
Ceres High will compete in the new-look WAC this year, along with Beyer, Grace Davis, Johansen, Pacheco, Lathrop, Central Valley and Livingston.
Central Valley and Livingston relocated from the Central California Conference and Trans Valley League, respectively, as part of the Sac-Joaquin Section’s league realignment plan.
Past WAC members Los Banos and Mountain House joined the CCC and Valley Oak League.
Ceres High’s girls and boys teams took fourth and last, respectively, at the 2023 WAC Championships.
The Bulldogs’ conference schedule will consist of three cluster meets this season, including the league finals.
Brown had high expectations for the girls team.
“I believe we would have finished in the top three if we hadn’t lost Luna,” he said. “I’m still hoping for top three. It’s no longer a guarantee. Now we’re going to have to fight a lot harder for it.”
Brown expects the boys team to improve on last year’s finish.
“We can be competitive,” he said. “We’d love to work our way into the top three.”
Ceres High will re-stablish its rivalry versus crosstown-rival Central Valley this fall.
Central Valley competed in the WAC prior to spending the last four seasons in the CCC.
“I’m really happy to have Central Valley back in our league,” Brown said. “Last year, we had a couple practices with them. We’ll have some intra-city competition between the two high schools, which will be fun.”
