City Cross-Country Championships : Belmont Wins Fifth Consecutive Championship

Although the names may change, the results remain the same for Belmont High School. The Sentinels, led by Teferi Gebre’s victory, won their fifth consecutive City cross-country title Saturday at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

Belmont scored 60 points to 83 by runner-up Wilson. Birmingham (107), Granada Hills (115) and Roosevelt (116) rounded out the top five teams.

In the girls’ race, Sandra Rodriguez and sophomore teammate Arcelia Gomez finished 1-2 to lead Wilson to an easy win. The Mules placed five runners in the first 18 finishers and defeated runner-up Kennedy, 39-69.

El Camino Real (100), Belmont (123) and South Gate (137) finished third, fourth and fifth.

Gebre, who moved to the United States from Gondar, Ethiopia, 2 1/2 years ago, surged away from pre-meet favorite Ian Alsen of Granada Hills after the two-mile mark and was never challenged after that.

He finished with a personal best of 15 minutes 10 seconds over the three-mile course. Alsen ran a 15:20.7. “The race went much like I prayed it would,” Gebre said. “I was only worried about Alsen.”

Rodriguez dominated the girls’ race and lowered her course record to 17:49 in the process. She set the previous best of 18:01 at Tuesday’s preliminaries.

Kennedy junior Sheri Lawson was the only runner who challenged Rodriguez for the lead, but Lawson faded after the first mile and finished sixth.