YUMA — Coming down the home stretch of the West Wetlands Invitational cross country meet here on Saturday, Sept 10, Holtville High School junior Lillian Strahm was giving everything she had to catch race leader Katie Bell from Lake Havasu High.
With about 25 yards left in the 3.1-mile race, Bell stumbled and went down to her knees. Strahm actually stopped to help Bell, who was struggling with her asthma, up to her feet and then sprinted to the finish line to win the 38-girl varsity race.
Holtville High School junior Lillian Strahm, right, won the varsity girls race at the West Wetlands Invitational hosted by Cibola High in Yuma on Saturday, Sept. 10. Vikings’ sophomore Angelina Rios, left, was a medalist in the race with her 15th- place finish. | PHOTO COURTESY OF HOLTVILLE HIGH SCHOOL
“I thought it was my chance to get the win but I didn’t want to just leave her there,” said the 16-year-old Strahm. “She had collapsed and I tried to help her up but then her parents came so I finished the race.”
Bell would go on to finish second (20:59), behind Strahm (20:46).
Vikings’ sophomore Angelina Rios finished 15th to earn a medalist position, completing the race in 24 minutes, 46 seconds.
The only other medalist in the girls’ event was Southwest High School’s Julia Monreal (21:58) who finished fourth overall.
Holtville sophomore Clara Strahm finished in 19th position with her time of 25 minutes, 55 seconds.
In the boys’ varsity race, Vikings’ senior Bryan Aguirre narrowly missed medaling when he finished 21st in the 53-boy race with a time of 20 minutes, 19 seconds.
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Freshman Antuan Roa was 25th (20:44) for Holtville and senior teammate Axel Banda was 42nd (22:13).
Two runners from Southwest finished as medalists with senior Steven Gomez taking fifth (18:21) and senior Miguel Ramirez finishing 12th (19:36).
The Vikings will next compete at the Mt. Carmel ASICS Invitational scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 17, at Morley Field in San Diego.
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