Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Jeff Bennett Hawks runner Tristan Blair runs on top of the hill at Toro Park on Oct. 24. Blair took the hill by storm and finished the race in 14 place with a time of 23:00

Las Positas College did everything they could to bring home the schools first league championship Wednesday afternoon at Toro Park in Salinas, but came up just short.
Coming into the race ranked fourth in the leagues, the Hawks had something to prove during the race. The Hawks were more than upset about their low ranking coming into the Coast Conference Championship.
The plan for the day was to prove they were underrated and take the conference by storm with a conference championship.
The Hawks were unable to bring home a championship trophy, but they did bring home the respect of the league.
"Second is a great achievement," Juan Gomez said. "We might not have beaten them (Hartnell) but they saw the attempt and gave us respect for it."
The team received respect from everyone after their strong performance, but it was Hawks Ivan Medina that earned the respect of everyone with his second place finish at a time of 21:57 for the four-mile course.
"I'm most proud of Ivan," coach Steve Navarro said. "No one picked him to finish second in the league. He's now the second best finisher in league."
Medina has been working all season with long runs going up to 13 miles and five one-mile repeats at a 5:20 mile pace.
The expectations Medina set for himself wasn't a second place finishing, but when the chance came, he took it.
"I was trying to get top five," Medina said of his race plan. "I got a chance to get top two so I just ran fast at the end."
Medina wasn't the only Hawk runner tearing up the course with Gomez and Joey Nunes finishing right behind him with a fifth and sixth place.
Gomez was just barley able to edge out Nunes in the race finishing with a time of 22:29 to Nunes 22:31.
"We pushed each other during the race," Gomez said of running with Nunes throughout the race. "We ended up beating the guy in front of us for a good place."
The other runner for the Hawks finishing in the top 14 was Tristan Blair with a time of 23:00. Blair and the other runners finishing in the top 14 received medals after the race.

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