Froboese earns second-team all-CIF honors

Fallbrook High School senior Connor Froboese earned second-team all-CIF distinction at the CIF San Diego Section cross-country meet Nov. 17 at Morley Field in San Diego.

The first 10 finishers in each race earn berths on the all-CIF first team while the next 10 finishers are second-team selections. Froboese finished 19th among the 145 boys in the Division I race.

“He beat the people he should have beat,” said Fallbrook head coach Marco Arias.

Froboese had a time of 16:53 on the 5,000-meter (3.1-mile) course. “Overall I was very pleased with it,” Arias said.

Froboese completed the 2011 CIF meet in 16:36. “I think it was more of the pace than actually Connor,” Arias said of Froboese’s slower time this year. “I think the pace was a little slower than last year.”

Froboese finished 13th among 58 runners Nov. 10 at the Avocado West League meet; he had a time of 17:51 on the Guajome Park course. “I think he came back and had a better race at CIF,” Arias said.

Fallbrook’s second finisher at the CIF meet was sophomore Elijah Roque, whose time of 17:56 was worth 73rd place in the Division I race. Last year Roque’s time of 18:24 made him the 100th finisher among the 149 Division I runners.

Fallbrook’s next three finishers were all competing in their first CIF meet. Alex Mendoza posted a time of 18:37 for 108th place; junior Luis Montes finished 132nd at 19:25, and junior Alex Contreras took 137th place after a 19:29 performance.

Contreras put his foot across the finish line before Fallbrook senior Joe Calescibetta, who also had a time of 19:29 and was given 138th place. Calescibetta placed 141st in the 2011 meet with a time of 19:53.

Senior Gustavo Tarango, who finished last at the league meet, finished ahead of two runners at the CIF meet. His 143rd-place time was 19:46.

“Overall it was a positive experience, a learning experience for some of the guys,” Arias said.

The race was the last in their high school cross-country careers for the four Fallbrook seniors. “We’ve got some freshmen who are going to come in and fill those spots, so the outlook is promising,” Arias said.

“We should be in very good shape,” Arias said. “With a good summer of training, we can come back and get back to respectability. I see positive things.”