Central Valley High School reached unprecedented heights in varsity boys cross country under fourth-year head coach Veronica Moreno's guidance.
The Hawks' boys cross country program has been named the Courier's Team of the Year for this fall.
Moreno was named Coach of the Year.
"We spend so much time together," Veronica said. "I call them my cross country babies. They call me mommy Moreno. We really are a family."
Central Valley won the 2017 Western Athletic Conference overall title by virtue of its first-place finish at the league finals and 5-0 record during the dual-meet season.
"It's been a struggle the past three seasons," said Moreno, whose program failed to post a team score at the 2014 WAC Championships due to its thin roster. "They went from not winning anything to winning everything. I'm not surprised. These boys have worked so hard. They conquered more than the course. They gained a lot of respect from their peers."
The Hawks had five runners medal at the 2017 WAC Championships, including Andres Rojo, Isaiah Sanchez, Chase Bogart, Favio Gonzalez and Enrique Martinez.
Rojo captured the conference's individual title and Most Valuable Player award.
Andres placed first with a time of 18 minutes, 02 seconds on the 3.1-mile course.
Sanchez (18:18), Bogart (18:42), Gonzalez (18:57) and Martinez (19:01) took second, third, fifth and eighth, respectively.
The top eight finishers were rewarded with all-conference honors.
Central Valley teammates Christian Balderas (19:19), Sebastian Pena (19:42), Javier Cuevas (19:51), Alejandro Orozco (20:07), Sabino Urrutia (20:25), Jair Pineda (20:44), Aaron Vander Wal (21:02), Carlos Prado (21:03), Patric Senesom (21:11), Ruben Sanchez (21:20), Alex Solis (21:51), Fidel Castillo (22:26), Ivan Villegas (22:48), Sergio Garcia (23:08), Samson Gonzalez (23:14), Estevan Leyva (24:36), Antonio Castillo (25:24), Sanvir Dhillon (29:45), Jared Sinlapaxay (31:38), and Pedro Cerrillos (31:58) placed 12th, 16th, 20th, 25th, 28th, 34th, 36th, 37th, 41st, 44th, 51st, 54th, 56th, 57th, 58th, 62nd, 68th, 78th, 79th and 80th, respectively.
The Hawks placed fifth at the conference finals and dropped all five of their duals last year.
"We're the first cross country team from Central Valley to do that (win the WAC)," Rojo said. "We turned heads. We were all on the same page."
