DRIVEN AND FOCUSED

El Diamante's Devin Ibarra is in a class of his own among Tulare County's high school cross country runners.
In November, Ibarra won the individual East Yosemite League boys championship. He followed that by capturing the Central Section Division II title at Woodward Park in Fresno.
And the senior wasn't done.
During the Thanksgiving break at the 2023 CIF State Cross Country Championships, which is also held at Woodward Park, Ibarra placed third overall in the Division II 5,000-meter race, finishing with a personal-record time of 15 minutes and 6.1 seconds.
Then on Dec. 2 at the 2023 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships West Regional at Mt. San Antonio College, Ibarra proved that he is one of the elite runners on the West Coast.
Ibarra placed fourth overall at 15:27 to qualify for the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships National Finals on Dec. 9 at Morley Field-Balboa Park in San Diego. He will now compete against the top runners from the South, Northeast and Midwest regionals. This race will be webcast live at Click Here.
"Definitely all my hard work paid off," Ibarra said. "It was a very special moment for me. I'm just so glad that my coaches have always been there for me. They pushed me in the right way every time. I'm just so glad where I'm at right now. It's just been amazing."

Ibarra's success was the result of commitment, determination, grit and hard work in the offseason, especially in the summer.
After his junior track and field season concluded in May, he took a week off but stayed active by biking and swimming.
Once that week of rest was over, he was back in action.
His cross country training started in June, logging between 65 to 70 miles weekly. He threw in some light track workouts here and there to diversify his training.
When July rolled around, Ibarra was off to Lake Tahoe to train in altitude.
"I was really just running," Ibarra said. "I literally ran the same trail every single day for like a whole month. It was kind of like insane actually. I don't know how I was doing it. Then every Monday, I had a track workout. There was a local track where I would just go. It was like a 10-minute drive of where I was staying."

How did that training help assist Ibarra for the season?
"It definitely prepared me pretty good," Ibarra said. "It definitely gave me a big boost for a big season. It got me ready to race against everybody. Training in altitude is something different compared to training at the street level."
Ibarra had a strong showing at the state final. He shaved nearly a minute off of his time from the section meet, coming in at 15:06.1. His winning time at the section finale was 15:49.7.
How did he improve so much in one week?
"My best time on that course was 15:20 and the Valley race, it was like an easy workout so I took it very light that day," Ibarra said. "I didn't run my fastest or go all out."
At state, Ibarra had some runners match his drive and he was finally in a race. That sparked him to a third-place medal and a podium finish.
Ibarra is the first Miner to medal at state since Mark Hales started coaching at El Diamante six years ago.
"It's pretty incredible," Hales said. "He ran an exceptionally good time at Valley and PR'ed by probably at least 15 seconds at state. It's been really one of those things that we as coaches are kind of always thinking about who is going to be at this race that can push Devin. It was honestly hard this season to find runners to push Devin, runners that he can fight to keep up with because most of his races, Devin was so far ahead, it was Devin running against himself just trying to pace himself, especially in those races."

During the season, Ibarra captured six individual 5,000-meter titles, winning the 50th annual Douglas P. Rudolf Invitational, Tesoro Viejo 5K Invitational, Sierra Pacific Golden Bear Invitational, Roughrider Invitational, EYL Championships and Central Section Division II Championships.
With that type of success, Ibarra has helped elevate the standards at El Diamante.
"It's amazing," Hales said. "It's nice because most of the time in cross country, cross country is the students' second sport, and they use cross country to train for other sports, but having someone to really focus on running and focus in cross country, it kind of shows what's possible when the student focuses on the sport and not just uses it to train for other sports."
That has Ibarra on the national stage. He was one of 10 runners at the West Regional to advance to the national finals.
That accomplishment is a result of Ibarra's work ethic.
"He's driven and focused," Hales said. "He sets goals and he has ideas of what he wants to achieve and goes out and trains to acquire those goals. He's not goofing around. He's not complaining about hard workouts and about the heat. He's just doing what he needs to do and focused on becoming the best that he can become."

El Diamante's other cross country coach, Pete Murrieta, agreed.
"He's an extremely dedicated young man," Murrieta said. "Double practices. He works very hard."
What are Ibarra's plans for college?
"I'm looking at a lot of different schools right now but I'm not too sure where I want to go," Ibarra said. "Still kind of waiting, still trying to prove myself, get some good times. I have one more, maybe two more races for cross and then track season starts and we'll see what happens."