After putting away some Thanksgiving turkey, Riverbank cross country runners – eight of them in all – headed south to Fresno for their final event of the season. They had mixed results at the State Cross Country Meet, hosted at Woodward Park on Saturday, Nov. 29.

“The state meet went really well for the girls,” said coach Monte Wood. “The boys didn’t run as well as we would have liked.”

The girls went as a varsity team and finished 13th overall which is an improvement from last year, said Wood.

“We beat Amador, who beat us for the section championship. We were really pleased about that,” the coach noted.

Top finisher for the Lady Bruins was Kim Ruvalcaba, 25th overall.

“She got caught in a huge pack in the first mile and couldn’t really move up,” Wood explained. “She was sitting in about 40th place at the mile mark and moved up to 25th by the end of the race.”

Haley Richardson and Sabrina Garcia ran really well together and finished at 20:23 and 20:29 respectively, while Joslyn Beliera’s time of 20:59 was a huge personal record.

“She wanted to break 21 minutes and saw the clock at 20:40 when she hit the grass area and kicked hard to finish in 20:59,” said Wood. “Stephanie Bernal ran 25:20 last year at the state meet and ran 22:35 this year. That is a testimony to her hard work and dedication for the last year. Lydia Hodges finished with a personal record as well.”

Representing the Bruin varsity boys were brothers Adan and Emmanuel Chavez, who ran hard, but didn’t get the times they wanted.

“Adan Chavez placed 53rd overall in 16:39 and Emmanuel finished in 17:07,” Wood said.

The Fresno meet closed out a very successful year for the Riverbank runners and was a satisfying way to conclude the campaign.