ELAC's Ogwaro Wins State Cross Country Title
written by Matthew Wong 10/16/07
Setting a new course record, Oscar Ogwaro of East Los Angeles College dominated the State scene! At a time of 19 minutes and 56 seconds, he broke the previous record by a staggering 8 seconds and won the race by a good 19 seconds! It was no contest as Coach Aaron Junta declared, "He was in complete control the last 2 miles, no one else came close to him."
Ogwaro had been running for 3 years prior to his transfer to ELAC. He first started at Wilson HS during his freshman year, running it to get a feel, but during his sophomore year he broke out, winning many of the races he competing in and braking some of Wilson's Track and Field records. As Ogwaro said, "At the time, it wasn't that big. The coach was saying that the school record was on for the last eight years. So, it kind of made me feel good because it was something that ... i broke on my first try."
Even though Ogwaro seemed to be getting faster, his running career took a bump in the road. During his Junior year in HS he transferred to Downtown Business Magnet HS and because of a new CIF rule he could not compete the following year. And then, instead of running another year in HS, in which he knew he could dominate easily, Coach Junta talked to Ogwaro, he got interested, and skipped his Senior year to run at East LA (a higher level!).
In 2005, Ogwaro had a pretty good season, getting top 15 finishes for most of his races, yet in State, he had a bad fall, could have done better, yet still ended up 14th overall. And in 06 he had 6 first place finishes, as well as his victory at state. As Junta commented, "Oscar's performance was as good as any that I've seen in my eight years of coaching at the state meet."
And well, Oscar, well, he's the fastest kid in state! (in my opinion)
for original article (haha they mispelled oscar's name AND got a few 'facts' wrong - bravo DOES have an xc and track team, he went to DBM instead... and other stuff) visit original LACCD article on Oscar's win
Yes, I hate those newspaper writers... then again... it IS ELAC =P (haha top 10 in country... lol)