With new coach, increased summer mileage and more racing experience, Chino Hills junior has plenty of motivation this season, beginning in Sundown Showdown race at Cool Breeze Invitational

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

For the first time in her high school career, Chino Hills High junior Jacqueline Duarte will enter a season as a reigning California state champion.

She will also enter the year with a new coach in Kimberly Kreiss, who increased the Huskies’ summer mileage, as well as a new teammate in freshman sister Bella Duarte.

The winner of the California girls 1,600-meter title as a sophomore in a personal-best 4 minutes, 42.58 seconds May 25 at Buchanan’s Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis, Jacqueline Duarte is looking to achieve similar success this cross country season, with the first opportunity on that journey Friday in the 3-mile Sundown Showdown at the ASICS Cool Breeze Invitational at Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena.

“Cool Breeze is really going to be the test for how the season could possibly go,” said Duarte, who placed third in last year’s race in 16:53.5.

“I haven’t run in any meets (since the Brooks PR Invitational mile in June). This will be my first meet and I’m just hoping it will go well.”

Duarte won’t be the only state champion scheduled to race at Cool Breeze, as Claremont sophomore Maddie Coles – who led the Wolfpack to a third straight Division 2 cross country title last season – is expected to compete in the Sundown Showdown after winning the freshman race last year in 17:05.6.

Both Coles and Duarte ran under 17 minutes in separate races at the CIF-Southern Section finals on the 3-mile Riverside course last season, but this will mark the first time the athletes have squared off in cross country, although they were club soccer teammates for four years competing for the Inland Empire-based Arsenal FC.

“It is motivating being a state champion and it’s something that really boosted my confidence. But cross country is so different from track. The races are always different, you’re on trails, you’re on concrete going to dirt, so there’s immediate changes on the course,” said Duarte, who also finished 15th at the Division 1 state cross country final last fall.

“It will be very different from track, but (winning) state, that definitely boosted my confidence.”

Coles and Village Christian junior Mia Barnett – who each won CIF-Southern Section cross country titles last season before both placing second in their respective divisions at the state finals – add even more depth to an event that is also expected to feature La Quinta senior Akemi Von Scherr, Claremont senior Azalea Segura Mora, Valencia senior Hailey Kirsch, Colony junior Amber Rios, Simi Valley junior Jill Walker and Mira Costa sophomore Dalia Frias, in addition to California athletes from Ayala, Great Oak, Newbury Park, Poway, Saugus and Westlake.

“Winning CIF in cross country and track the past two years has been amazing, but when Jacqueline won state, it only gave me more motivation to want to do the same thing,” said Barnett, who competes in Division 4 in track and Division 5 in cross country.

“She showed us all that it’s possible, but also how hard you have to work in order to do it.”

Whether the pace of Friday’s marquee race will allow Duarte and the lead pack to challenge the meet-record 16:32.2 produced by last year’s winner Sarah Shulze of Oak Park remains to be seen.

But after lowering her time last season by exactly a minute from what she ran at Cool Breeze as a freshman, combined with the most productive summer training of her career, Duarte knows her improved fitness and racing strategy should be beneficial in Chino Hills’ return to Brookside.

“Freshman year, in the races, I had no idea what to expect. I was just taking off and hoping I would stay up front. Now, I kind of know what kind of strategies to use as the race goes on and just to be patient with the race and know that when people do take off, I need to go with them,” said Duarte, who is trying to lead the Huskies to their first state team appearance since an eighth-place finish in the Division 1 final in 2008.

“Freshman year, people would take off and I’d wait until the very end to try to catch them. But I’ve learned a lot over the past races, just to be patient and work my way up.”

After experiencing the euphoria of winning a state 1,600 championship, along with the disappointment of a 12th-place finish in the mile in her first national race June 15 at the Brooks PR Invitational in Washington, Duarte also knows how important preparation will be in order to handle any challenge and every competitor under the lights Friday in Pasadena, as well as throughout the season.

“I’m just trying to stay with whomever is leading the pack, or even if I’m up there, I’ll just try to hold them off,” Duarte said. “From being at Brooks PR, that meet taught me, never go into it not knowing what to expect. Know what to expect in a race, know who’s there and know who your competition is.”