Palos Verdes boys, girls, win first Bay League cross country meet
Mira Costa’s Nikko Pappas, left, and Redondo’s William Tait and Carlos Suarez try to hold off eventual winner Casey Celestin of Palos Verdes. Photo
Taking full advantage of their home course, the Palos Verdes boys and girls cross country teams captured the first Bay League meet Thursday holding off Redondo Union and Mira Costa, respectively.
Palos Verdes’ Casey Celestin won the boys title with a time of 16 minutes, six seconds but it was Ian Jones, the Sea King’s sixth runner who decided the team title.
Redondo runners William Tait (16:20), Carlos Suarez (16:34) and Dustin Herold (16:36) took the second through fourth spots to lead the Sea Hawks to a 40 point finish and a tie with Palos Verdes.
Going to the sixth-place tiebreaker, Jones (13th, 17:26) outpaced Redondo’s Sergio Rodriguez (14th, 17:36), Tomohiro Yamaya (15th, 17:44) and Waseem Radi (16th, 17:45) to give the home team a narrow victory. Redondo’s seventh runner, Nicholas Wells finished 24th at 18:08.
Helping Palos Verdes win the meet were Lucas Robinson (6th, 16:38), Miles Irish (9th, 16:53), Luke Letwin (11th, 17:07) and Jake Cohen (12th, 17:19).
Mira Costa’s Abby Hong dominated the field to win the first Bay League cross country meet held at Palos Verdes. Photo
Mira Costa finished third with 66 points and was led with top-ten finishes by Nikko Pappas (5th, 16:37) and J.C. Ohmstede (8th, 16:45). Also helping the Mustang’s cause were Chance Weston (14th, 17:30), Matt O’Brien (19th, 17:52), Ethan Williams (20th, 17:52), Brandon Shirazi (21st, 18:03) and Ty Garrett (30th, 18:38).
Palos Verdes is ranked No. 1 in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 poll while Redondo holds the No. 3 spot in Division 2.
Mira Costa’s Abby Hong led most of the way to win the girls race with a time of 19:02, decisively outpacing Palos Verdes’ Cassidy Webber (19:25) and McKennah Genovese (19:32).
But it was Palos Verdes that won the team title with 28 points. Mira Costa placed second with 35 points followed by Redondo with 86.
Mira Costa’s Emma Lautanen placed 4th at 19:39 followed by Redondo’s Amber Gore (5th, 20:03), Palos Verdes’ Camille Hines (6th, 20:08), Mira Costa’s Natasha Brunstein (7th, 20:17), Palos Verdes’ Skylar Thiel (8th, 20:17) and Abbey Watson (9th, 20:37) and Mira Costa’s Kara Jeong (10th, 20:43).
Leora Tofler (13thy, 20:49), Kellie Jeong (19th, 21:10) and Alexis Johnson (22nd, 21:38) rounded out Mira Costa’s team.
Other Redondo runners included Anevay Hiehle (12thy, 20:48), Jessica Washington (14th, 20:50), Nicole Pederson (27th, 21:52), Paige Sullivan (28th, 21:57), Breya Wynne (34th, 22:58) and Natalie Hardiman (35th, 24:27).
Palos Verdes is the top ranked girls team in Division 3 while Mira Costa (No. 3) and Redondo (No. 7) are among the top ten in Division 2.
The boys and girls teams from Mira Costa and Redondo are scheduled to compete Wednesday in the South Bay Cup beginning at 1:30 p.m. at Colombia Park in Torrance.
On Friday, Oct. 4, Redondo’s top 12 runners will compete in the Desert Twilight Festival in Mesa, AZ. The remaining team members will run in the Warren Stauffer Invitational in South Gate on Saturday, Oct. 5.
Mira Costa remains local as the Mustangs will run in the Manhattan Beach 10K on Saturday, Oct. 5.