Looking to peak at the right time in the race for a CIF championship, local cross country teams had strong showings Saturday at the 64th Annual Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational meet held at the college campus in Walnut.
Mira Costa’s girls team had an impressive 7th–place finish in the Division 1 & 2 Sweepstakes race, one of many races at the event that includes more than 20,000 competitors to make it the largest cross country invitational meet in the nation.
Kelli Sugimoto placed 10th for the Mustangs completing the 3-mile course in 18 minutes, two seconds. Other Mira Costa runners included Jenna Tong (30th, 18:37), Abby Hong (61st, 19:23), Vivien Cherrette (66th, 19:32), Sarah Locke-Henderson (70th, 19:39), Lauren Inouye (87th, 20:05) and Christine Inouye (88th, 20:08).
Redondo coach Bob Leetch opted to have his boys and girls teams compete in the Division 2 category, using the meet as a tune-up for the final Bay League meet to be hosted by West on Thursday, Nov. 3 beginning at 1:30 p.m. Saturday’s race also gave the Sea Hawk runners an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the Mt. SAC course which will be the site for the CIF preliminaries and finals.
Redondo’s girls team captured first place in its Division 2 heat with four runners placing in the top ten. Cara Ulizio led the Sea Hawks with a 2nd-place finish with a time of 18:30.
Rachel Bush (6th, 18:49), Lyndsey Mull (7th, 18:53), Kayla Ferron (8th, 18:39), Alexis Thibodeau (24th, 19:28) and Anique Villegas (32nd, 19:50) rounded out the field for Redondo.
Simi Valley, the top-ranked girls team in CIF Southern Section Division 2, captured the Sweepstakes title. Redondo is ranked No. 3 in the Division 2 poll, ahead of rival Mira Costa who holds down the No. 6 spot.
In boys competition, Redondo placed second in its Division 2 heat finishing behind Hart and ahead of Peninsula and Mira Costa. Hart is ranked No. 3 in the Division 2 poll followed by No. 5 Redondo at No. 5, No. 7 Peninsula and No. 8 Mira Costa.
William Tait led the Sea Hawks with a 6th-place finish at 15:55. Also contributing for Redondo were Tyler Caracoza (11th, 16:02), Evan Malone-White (18th, 16:13), Garrett Klatte (28th, 16:35), Alex Guzman (37th, 16:51), Dustin Herold (61st, 17:18) and Takehiro Yamaya (67th, 17:31).
Leading Mira Costa to its 4th-place finish were Travis Taylor (13th, 16:07), Zach Adler (17th, 16:13), Sammy Nunan (24th, 16:26), Adam Perez (26th, 16:30), Pablo Diaz (31st, 16:40, Niko Pappas (58th, 17:13) and Michael Goldberg (74th, 17:40).
