Gensel and Panthers Steal Norcal Preview Wins
ROCKLIN - The last time the Hartnell men defeated perennial Northern California powerhouse American River College on the Sierra College course was 2016. That year, Edgar Bonilla and Jorge Sanchez went 1-2 overall and the Panthers would set a program record for lowest points in the Northern California Championship with 31 points. Fast forward to 2021 and after losing an entire season to the pandemic, the Panthers returned to Sierra College for this year's Northern California Preview Meet. With twelve full teams in attendance for the men's championship 4-mile race, the Panthers faced the mighty Beavers for the first time in 2021. American River College was fresh off an impressive team race at the Fresno Invitational where they placed second overall in a mixed field of two-year and four-year schools. Even more impressively, the Beavers had a team time of 21:16 and top-five runner time spread of just 17 seconds. After an exciting four miles of racing, the Panthers defeated their rivals by one point thanks to two important late-race surges and also claimed the top individual spot.
Hartnell finished with 36 points to win the race, ARC was second with 37 and San Joaquin Delta was third (117 points) in the 12-team race.
Sophomore Isaac Gensel enjoyed a solid freshman campaign in fall 2019. He was third at the Coast Conference Championship and tenth at the Northern California Championship. He completed the season with a 24th place finish at the state championship. After having been without normal competition for a year, Gensel has set out to make his final cross country season for the Panthers one for the record books. After a second-place finish at the Tour de Cuesta two weeks ago, the former Monterey grad battled with Evan Franco of DeAnza College and Christian Martinez of American River College for the second two-mile loop.
Gensel pulled even with both with just less than 200 meters from the finish line. A final push sent Gensel across the line in first in 21:28 over the four-mile course. With the individual title already secured by a Panther, the focus was next on the team battle. At two miles, the Panthers had put the pressure on the American River squad by having four runners in the top seven but the Beavers had their entire placing seven in the top 12 overall. Over the next loop, places would change several times but the most important was for fifth place. Freshman Esteban Deniz did not get to compete in cross country due to the pandemic despite a stellar career at King City High School.
With a slight uphill to the finish line, Deniz passed American River runner Jacob Christopher for fifth place both timed in 21:52. With the other scoring runners secured in their places, this fifth place would largely be the reason for the Panthers early season upset of the Beavers. Francisco Maciel made his presence felt with an eighth-place finish (22:06). Freshman Eli Ainsworth was ninth (22:11). Three Beavers would cross the line before freshman Ricky Diaz III would finish in thirteenth (22:22). Freshmen Miguel Leon-Fernandez (22:30) and Mario Avila (22:38) would finish fifteenth and seventh just a few spots from the top 14 medals. Several other Panthers were in the championship race and faired well. Daniel Correa (22:51), Rigo Garcia (22:56), Jose Velazquez (23:09) and Joshua Riley (23:11) all perfomed well.
In the four-mile overflow, freshman Daniel Pantoja took the victory in 23:01 which would have placed finish 23rd in the championship race. Freshman Jesus Martinez (24:06), Marco Escorsia (24:47), Joel Mendoza (26:12), David Parmley (26:18), Maximo Puga (26:22), and Brandon Escalante (27:54) all represented Hartnell as well.
(Hartnell College Athletics)