Golden Valley High girls cross country win first CCC championship in school history

The Golden Valley High girls cross country team made history on Wednesday, becoming the first team to win a Central California Conference championship.

The Cougars accomplished the feat in impressive fashion with four girls finishing in the top five at the third CCC meet of the season in Los Banos. Golden Valley swept all three conference meets to capture the school’s first championship since Golden Valley opened in 1994.

“It means a lot for us to be the first team because we worked very hard, and I think we feel very rewarded because we were able to bond so much this year,” Golden Valley sophomore Aubri Villa said. “I think our hard work and our bonding has really contributed to the way we run.”

The Cougars finished with 22 team points, distancing themselves from the rest of the field. Atwater finished second with 51 points.

Merced High freshman star Eleanor Hampton finished in first place with a time of 18 minutes, 41.76 seconds.

The Cougars then claimed second through fifth place with strong performances by Ciarra Cabrera-Martinez (19:36.76), Villa (19:38.56), Fernanda Cortes (19:46.15) and Gabriela Hicks (19:46.63).

The Atwater boys won the CCC championship for the third time in four years. The Falcons were led by CCC MVP Nathan Trejo, who finished second with a time of 16:24.72. Golden Valley freshman Dominic Urteaga (16:11.12) finished first individually on Wednesday.

After knocking on the door of a title in recent years, Golden Valley coach John Wooding felt it was special to finally break through.

“In the past, the Golden Valley girls had some phenomenal athletes, but they didn’t have the team, instead it was like two or three superstars every year,” Wooding said. “We slowly started building it, we’d have flashes of greatness, but really the last few years, the biggest roadblock has been Atwater.”

The Cougars have won girls track championships, claiming titles in 2001, 2008, 2019 an 2023.

Cabrera-Martinez, who was the Merced Sun-Star Female Track Athlete of the Year in 2022, says it was special to win a cross country championship her senior year.

“It really means a lot,” Cabrera-Martinez said. “We’ve been working toward this the whole season, we’ve been trying to push each other.”

Wooding credits the addition of assistant coach Joseluis Muniz for helping getting the Cougars over the hump.

Muniz was a former athlete for Wooding, when he coached at Buhach Colony. He ran into Muniz at the Atwater Christmas Parade a couple years ago and asked him to join his staff as a distance runner coach in the spring and cross country coach in the fall.

Muniz has tailored the workouts and set up a challenging schedule of meets to prepare the girls for the postseason.

“I would say we usually run 40 miles a week,” Villa said. “We will either do a long run or a short-distance sprint workout, and we usually alternate that throughout the week.”

Villa and Cabrera-Martinez have emerged as the Cougars top two runners and have pushed each other all season. Villa remembers working out with the Golden Valley cross country team during the summer when she was in middle school.

“I could have never imagined being that close to her in a race and running beside her,” Villa said. “It’s an honor for me, and it felt like a fairy tale dream, because I finished beside her today. I finished the race right by her. It’s like running with a celebrity, somebody who you’ve looked up to for a long time.”

The Cougars should be competing for multiple CCC championships with Villa, Cortes and Hicks all sophomores and freshman Chelsea Chavez, who finished ninth on Wednesday making up the core of the team for the next few years.

The focus now turns to making a deep postseason run as a team with a possible state berth a possibility.

“After (Wednesday), just looking at how those girls pushed each other through that whole race, and the times they ran for that 5k, I think we have a really good shot at going to state as long as everyone stays healthy and focused,” Wooding said.

Villa says it will be special to see their year to be the first to go up on the cross country banner hanging in Cougar Arena.

“It’s makes me very happy that we gave back to the coaches because they do so much for us, and it’ll feel really good to see our names, our team on the banner,” Villa said. “It will show us that we did that.”