We spoke to Zack Torres before the 3,200 meters race and he said his main goal was to qualify today. He came in second in the CIF-SS Finals, a second behind Vista Murrieta’s Noe Ramirez (still don’t quite know how to pronounce it), and managed to pace with him in the early parts of the race—both were hanging around fourth or fifth place.
Along with Torres is his Pacific League rival Amar Moussa of Arcadia. Moussa took the early lead in the first two laps, but fell to the middle of the pack at the 1,600 mark. Torres was in fifth.
At the 2,400 mark, Torres fell behind into sixth, just behind Ramirez, but after the 2,800 mark, Torres found a second wind. It was him and Moussa battling for sixth at 3,000 with Ramirez dropping to ninth, but Torres outlasted him down the stretch and nearly beat Isaac Chavez of Barstow for fifth.
Torres finished well in the 3,200, 9 minutes, 04.85 seconds, nearly seven whole seconds better than the necessary qualifying time to reach State. But Torres was still mildly dejected.
“He’s run 9:02,” said his coach, Mark Evans. “It wasn’t what we wanted to do, but he qualified and he ran a fast time. We wanted him to be in the front for the win.
But now that he’s qualified, the goal is for next week.
“We just got to get him rested and make sure he’s feeling good to go,” Evans said.
Torres, who congratulated every racer individually after the race, was slightly disappointed and took no consolation in beating Ramirez and Moussa.
“I should be aiming for that pack ahead of me,” Torres said. “I’m fast enough to stay with these guys, I can tough it out with the best of them and I’m aiming to do that at State.”
Two runners in the Masters beat the nine-minute mark, Heydon Wooff of Adolfo Camarillo (8:57.66) and Matt McElroy of Edison (8:59.00). Ahead of Torres were two other locals: Sam Pons of South Pasadena (9:00.95) and Western Nelson of Burroughs (9:04.19). Chavez finished with 9:04.50.
Torres said that his studying this week might have affected his performance, due to lack of sleep.
“I grinded this race pretty hard, but after I figured out I had qualified, I cruised to the end, Torres said. “I have a perfect race within me and I haven’t run my perfect race yet.”
