With highly-competitive meets under their belts, cross country teams from Mira Costa, Palos Verdes and Redondo will begin their race for Bay League titles Thursday, Sept. 24 when Palos Verdes hosts the first league meet beginning at 2:30 p.m.
Palos Verdes’ boys and girls teams are ranked No. 1 in CIF-SS Division 3 but both genders from Redondo and Mira Costa will provide strong competition.
Redondo has moved from Division 2 to Division 1 where both boys and girls squads are ranked No. 9.
in Division 2, Mira Costa’s boys hold the No. 2 spot and the Lady Mustangs are ranked No. 10.
“The Bay League is the premier conference in the area and appears to be balanced as ever,” Redondo coach Bob Leetch said. “We feel as the season unfolds we will have a better sense of where we fit.”
Redondo is coming off an impressive performance at the 35th annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic, at which the Sea Hawk’s boys and girls teams won their Gold Division competition, each besting Whittier and Redlands. Redondo’s boys finished 22nd among the 288 schools competing at the meet while the girls team placed 19th overall.
Junior Ethan Comeaux led Redondo’s boys team, placing first in the Gold Division and 25th overall with a time of 14 minutes, 53.8 seconds.
“We had a fine performance at the Woodbridge Invitational last weekend,” Redondo coach Bob Leetch said. “Both boys and girls squads showed marked improvement and are coming together as a team. On the boys side Ethan Comeaux has been a pleasant surprise and has emerged as a solid frontrunner. We have high expectations for him and the boys squad that includes returning letterman Harrison Fox and Andrew Zavala. Both have run very well and with the addition of Nick Elias and Ryan Wadhams we have a nice scoring group.”
Also helping Redondo capture the Gold Division title were seniors Harrison Fox (3rd, 15:26.4), Andrew Zavala (12th, 15:44.5), Nick Elias (18th, 15:57.0), Ryan Wadhams (35th, 16:13.6), sophomore Brian Adler (37th, 16:16.2) and freshman Benjamin Tait (105th, 16:44.2).
Redondo’s girls team was led by Taylor Beaudoin (6th, 18:02.3), Jeanette Echevarria-Herrera (9th, 18:21.1), Trinity Leonard (13th, 18:29.9), Nicole Beaudoin (14th, 18:34.9), Sara Bilotta (15th, 18:36.5), Isabel Ramirez (35th, 19:17.3) and Natalie Hardiman (62nd, 20:03.7).
“Taylor Beaudoin has been a very consistent runner for us,” Leetch said. “She leads a strong 1-5 group that has been very good early on.”
After the first Bay League meet, Redondo’s varsity teams will compete in the Bob Firman Invitational in Boise, Idaho.
Mira Costa is also looking strong this season. The Mustang’s girls squad placed second at the Seaside Invitational in Ventura on Sept. 11, winning the Junior race led by Emily Jones (6th, 18:52.5), Abby Guerroro (10th, 19:00.2) and Sierra Andrade (12th, 19:06.0).
The Mustangs placed third in the Senior race with Alexis Johnson (7th, 18:15.9) and Amanda Han (13th, 18:56.5) recording the top times for the team.
Due to the extreme heat, the boys races in Ventura were cancelled, but Mira Costa coach Roberto Calderon was granted a late entry to the Laguna Hills Invitational, where the Mustangs won the overall team time honors among the 64 teams entered.
Caleb Llorin won the Junior race with a time of 15:44 and Ty Garrett captured the Senior race at 15:50. Llorin, Garrett, Michael Yaskowitz (15:53), Scott Healy (16:02) and Ethan Williams (16:08) all finished in the top 20 fastest overall times across all three divisions.
On Wednesday, Oct. 30, Mira Costa is scheduled to compete in the South Bay Cup held at Columbia Park in Torrance.
