Lady Broncs runners take back-to-back seconds

The four Broncs that ran at the Independence Invitational. Logan Sampson, Ethan Mauer, Dario
Jones, and Matthew Leonez. Submitted photos.

The Kern Valley girls’ cross country team competed in back-to-back invitationals and both times they finished in second place.
They began their races on Friday as they competed in the Moorpark Invitational. Five Lady Broncs made the trip to compete. In the small school division, Kern Valley came in second as a team. As individuals the top 25 received medals in this invitational. Each athlete from Kern Valley competed in their grade level.
Seniors, Aspen Hacker and Kassandra Guarneros led the way for the Lady Broncs. A. Hacker came across the finish line in third place with a time of 19:38. She led most of the race but could not sustain her pace and fell to third. Guarneros came across the line in 10th place to help the Lady Broncs secure the second-place finish as a team.
Head coach Kenny Bushling had this to say about Guarneros, “She was solid as usual. She’s a very dependable runner and we can always count on her to finish a slid race to allow the team to finish strong overall.”
Gretta Boettcher ran in the junior division and was able to capture a PR (personal record) in race. Her time was 22:41 and was 28th out of 73 runners. Kyla Hacker competed in the sophomore division and despite being under the weather, ran to a 24th place in a time of 22:53. There were 80 runners in this division.
In the freshmen race, Kern Valley was represented by Faith Kirby. This was Kirby’s first time running for the Lady Broncs. Her time was 26:93 and placed 32nd in the 64-field race. Bushling said, “Faith (Kirby) has been improving. She is going to be a large part of the varsity team as it competed for a league championship.”
The very next day, Kern Valley was back on the cross country course as they made the trip to Independence High School in Bakersfield. They would compete in the Independence Invitational. A. Hacker ran to a first-place finish in a time of 19:59. K. Hacker came across the line in fourth with a PR of 22:20. According to coach Bushling it was another solid finish from Boettcher as she finished 10th. Guarneros was 17th and Kirby was 19th. The Lady Broncs as a team were right on the edge on taking home the first-place trophy, but had to settle for another second in the race.
Three freshmen and one sophomore Broncs runners also made the trip to compete at Independence. This would be the first competition these boys would run. They would compete individually in the frosh/soph race. A team must have five runners to be able to compete in the team event. Logan Sampson led the Kern Valley runners as he finished third. Ethan Mauer was running his first race for the Broncs and came across the line in 10th place. The other freshmen running their first ever race were, Dario Jones who was 20th and Matthew Leonez.
Bushling said, “Running at the JV level, the distance is two miles. As they will be working their way up to three miles. They will be running the three-mile course in Bishop on Wednesday.”
Kern Valley will run at the HDL Invitational today and get a first look at the other league competitors. The race will take place in Bishop.