Junior Veronica Mejia, ripping off a 2:30 in the 800 meters, set a new personal high in her athletic career by qualifying for CIF next week.  With an incredible lineup that featured Monrovia’s Amanda Mansoorbekht, SoPas’ Anika Renken and our own Alissa Barraza, all seeded under 2:22, Veronica was only seeded sixth (at 2:35).  From the very start, it was obvious that Mansoorbekht had an injury or other issue as she jogged from the start and was never in the race.  That never phased Alissa as she set a blistering pace with a 66 second first lap.  Renken was doing all she could to stay with her.  Six seconds in back of those two were Veronica and La Canada’s Anna Frederich, a fellow junior who has beaten Ronnie many times in cross country.  But, this day belong to Mejia.  Veronica set a tough pace which probably surprised Anna.  Neither of the tough Monrovia girls finished the first lap.  The field spread out on the second lap as Renken lost contact with Alissa and Frederich gave up on Veronica.  After finishing, Alissa waited near the finish line for Veronica, happily greeting her with “You made CIF!”.  Indeed, she did.  Veronica needed to be 2:33 or better to go and she had 3 seconds to spare.  The final piece of this great race was that senior Marina Flores ran her last race, in the League Finals, and finished at 2:46.