Blanco Becomes Twelfth Norcal Champion for Hartnell

Hartnell Colelge men's cross country has had more individual regional champions than any other program. On Friday, Salinas High School graduate Jesse Blanco became the twelfth indvidual champion in program history and the third in the last four years. He joins Isaac Gensel (2021) and Esteban Deniz (2022) as recent champions. 

Running on the familiar trails of Toro Park, Blanco changed his strategy from the Norcal Preview Meet and ran with the leader into the hills. When he reappeared, Blanco had a lead of ten seconds over second place. He would extend that to an impressive 27 seconds at the finish line crossing in 20:23. The winning mark made him the third fastest in Hartnell history trailing 2014 champion Diego Leon and 2017 champion Ricky Esqueda. He also goes into a tie for the seventh fastest mark all-time on the Toro Park course. Behind him, the Panther would unfortunately see a lead at 1.65 miles go to second at 2.4 miles and ulitimately would finish fourth as a team. Freshmen duo Alvaro Ruelas and Giancarlo Mendo would finish ninth and tenth in 21:21 and 21:26 both earning All-Norcal honors in the their first year. Freshman Gabriel Clemente finished as the fifth runner (22:47) with Juan Gonzalez (23:13) and Aaon Eldredge (23:15) rounding out the top seven. The Panthers tallied 113 points just 13 off third place American River and 15 off runner-up De Anza College. 

The Panthers will now travel to Fresno for the 2024 3C2A State Championship at Woodward Park.