Sergio Gonzalez Signs NLI to Join Pilots
 
PORTLAND, Ore. --- The Portland Pilots men’s cross country team added its second California State Cross Country Champion this week, successfully signing Sergio Gonzalez to a National Letter of Intent, announced Portland head coach Rob Conner on Tuesday.
 
Gonzalez, a native of Arcadia, Calif., owns nationally ranked times in the 1600m and 3200m events this year, setting personal bests with times of 4:14.42 and 9:05.33, respectively.
 
"Sergio brings a lot of things that we value to our program. He is an extremely hard worker and talented athlete but his leadership and integrity were the x factors that drew us to Sergio,” Conner said of Gonzalez. “I can imagine that our runners will benefit just having Sergio standing next to them on the starting line. He has a will to win within the team framework that I haven't seen in a lot of high schoolers."
 
These times come on the heels of an impressive fall campaign that saw the soon-to-be Pilot race a 15:05.00 at Woodward Park during the 2011 California State Cross Country Championships to take the Division 1 crown.
 
Gonzalez also placed second in his race at the Mt Sac Cross Country Invitational, finishing with the third fastest overall time and joins Jacob Smith, Izaic Yorks and Danny Martinez in what Conner thinks might be the most outstanding recruiting class in Pilot history.

"Jesse Johnson has worked very hard this year and deserves a lot of credit,” added Conner. “I am not sure any school in the country will bring in four runners better than these four."