Rylee Blade earns fourth win at Inland Empire Challenge, Eyan Turk prevails against Maximo Zavaleta

ONTARIO, Calif. – Sometimes, the winner of a cross country race is essentially ensured before the competition even starts, barring injury.

Other times, the outcome is very much in doubt.

At Saturday’s Fleet Feet Inland Empire Challenge, the sweepstakes races showcased each scenario.

Woodcrest Christian’s Eyan Turk avenged a loss last year to win for the second time in his career in the Jeff Swigart boys sweepstakes 3-mile race.

Corona Santiago’s Rylee Blade blew away the field, as expected, to prevail for the fourth time in the Brenda Martinez girls sweepstakes race at Cucamonga-Guasti Regional Park. The meet includes only schools from San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

Turk, a senior, was second as a freshman, then won the race as a sophomore, seemingly setting him up to win three individual titles.

But last year, Turk was surprised by Martin Luther King sophomore Maximo Zavaleta. This time it was a virtual dead heat at the 2-mile mark before Turk pulled away, finishing in 14:23.9, ahead of Zavaleta’s 14:33.9.

Turk ran the final mile 10 seconds faster than Zavaleta.

Eyan Turk of Woodcrest Christian | Jimmy Su photo

“Last year, I was trying to go for a PR to win it,” Turk said. “Maximo is a really great runner, really smart. What he did (last year) was sit on my hip, which is a pretty good strategy, which is why he was able to overtake me. This year, I tried to take his own trick and use it against him.”

Turk ran Saturday after choosing not to run at last week’s 45th ASICS Clovis Invitational, held on the same Woodward Park course where he won his California Division 5 state championship last year.

Turk would’ve had to run Friday at Clovis.

“There’s another reason I’m going to keep undisclosed,” Turk said about not running at Clovis. “The competing part is fun. Especially when it’s against Maximo.”

Saturday will be one of the last times in high school Turk and Zavaleta get to compete against each other since their schools are not in the same division at the section and state levels.

Zavaleta recognized that he surprised Turk a little last year, but Saturday, the Woodcrest Christian standout had the scouting report.

“This year, I tried to do the same (strategy as last year), because I don’t really like to push it,” Zavaleta said. “You could tell it was a tactical race by the times we came in for the first mile and the second mile. The last 1,200, he just separated from me on the grass. He played that very well.”

Zavaleta did lead his team to the team title for the second straight year and King became the fifth team to repeat as boys team champion in the meet, which began in 2001.

King had four runners in the top 10 and won with 54 points, edging out Ayala (73) and Riverside Poly (82).

There was less drama in the girls sweepstakes race as Blade won for the fourth year in a row by clocking 15:49.5, beating runner-up Nicole Alfred of Rancho Cucamonga by nearly two minutes (17:47.9).

It was Blade’s best time on the course, which is fairly flat and includes portions on grass, dirt and pavement, although the performance surprised her, despite the Florida State commit eclipsing the 16-minute mark in a 3-mile race for the third time this season, all at different venues.

“My coach gave me a pace for the first mile and to stick with that so we could work on it for weeks in advance,” Blade said. “It wasn’t about running a super-fast time, which I wasn’t expecting that time. It was more trying to do the strategy my coach told me and to work on my race execution.”

Santiago won the team title without the services of the Sharks’ No. 2 runner, Braelyn Combe, who had a scheduled weekend off from competition. Combe finished second in the race last year.

Saturday’s No. 2 for Santiago was senior Audrey Buckley, who finished third in the race.

Santiago finished with 51 points, easily beating King (99) and Ayala (116).

Santiago and Blade were the California Division 1 team and individual champions last year.

Alfred, a senior, finished second for the first time in the race since she and Blade were freshmen.

“My strategy was to go out fast and settle in with that group (for second place) then just race the last half of my race,” Alfred said.

She surprised herself with the result, considering Alfred is coming off an ankle injury and Saturday was only her second race of the year.

It was a tight race behind Blade, as the next seven finishers were separated by just 11.1 seconds.