When José Guadalupe Herrera was not running this summer, he joined his father in the fields.
Last Saturday, the 16-year-old junior pitched in to help the Madera South High School to a sixth-place finish at the state cross country championships at Woodward Park. Herrera posted a personal best 15:46 on the 5-kilometer course to finish in 20th in the boys' Division 2 race.
The real highlight was having his parents, Eduardo and María Herrera, cheering him on.
"They never went before, like when I raced here last year, the first time I qualified for state. So, I was pretty happy and excited just to have them both there. That was a lot for me," said José
Eduardo and María, both immigrants from Michoacán, México, attended the state finals with José's younger siblings, Eduardo, Jr., 14, Cynthia, 8, and Andrea, 4, before taking the entire family to a party after José's race.
José tried out for the cross country squad his sophomore year just to get in shape for soccer, but was impressive enough to advance to the varsity squad the same year.
Now he cannot wait to be the first in his family to attend college and compete for a 4-year university in cross country and track and field. He's dropped soccer in the hope that running can open the doors to a college degree.
"I'm going for a scholarship. I want to be the example for my family," he said.
"I know that my dad works hard in the fields, I went out there and helped him pick grapes. It's not a good job. It's pretty tiring, and I thought I wouldn't want to work here all the time."
With a 3.30 grade point average, José is relying on his good grades and running to get the attention of college coaches.
At the Nike Pre-National Event in September in Oregon, he obtained a personal record of 15:49, which he beat last Saturday. He also toppled his first appearance time at state (16:19), which earned him a 77th-place finish.
"We worked hard all summer for this. We were doing like 60 to 70 miles a week," he said. "We didn't establish goals, but we did want to finish in the top three, and get to the podium."
Adriana Olivas, the sixth-place finisher in the girl's Division 1 race, is a senior at Centennial Corona. She is the first runner from that school to qualify for state. She finished in 18:05.
Olivas is being courted by 70 colleges, but admits she has narrowed the choice to five, which she says will remain private.
"I narrowed it down to colleges on the West Coast," said Olivas. "I'm very happy with my time today. And, I made history at my school: In the whole 21 years it's been open, I'm the first person in cross country to go to state."
Parents Elizabeth and Danny Olivas held signs in support for Adriana.
"Basketball was my main sport, but I decided to run to get into shape, but I stayed with it," said Adriana.
Cristal Rivera led the girls' team from Madera South High School with a time of 19:27 and 69th place.
A junior who maintains a 4.33 grade point average, Rivera says she learns a lot about life from helping serve food at a soup line.
"I'm very thankful when I help at the soup line. There's a lot of little kids, and when you touch their hands to hand their plates, you can feel that they're cold," said Rivera. "I'm actually thinking about a double major, where I can maybe help people."
Rivera, 17, wants to major in International Business at either the University of Santa Barbara or Stanford while continuing her athletic career.
Rivera is also an associated student body representative, the treasurer for Future Business Leaders of América, and a member of the California Scholarship Federation.
Oakmont High School junior Karlie García led the pack halfway into the Division 3 girls' race, but Campolindo's Carrie Verdon managed to defend the title.
Verdon passed García, the Sac-Joaquin Section champion, to complete the race with a time of 17:19 to García's 17:20. Those were the two fastest times of the day for all girls.
"I think it's easier to stay ahead when you have someone to attack," said García, who did not run last year due to illness. "I didn't want to look back to see how close anybody was."
Marisa Carino, a sophomore at Oakmont, finished 31st.
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