Girls leave fall season with a bang
Junior Maegan Manasse became the first Mira Costa girl tennis player to win an individual CIF title. Photo
In a week where the high school winter sports season got underway, local girls were putting their own exclamation marks on the fall season with impressive performances.
Completing an undefeated 32-0 season, Mira Costa junior Maegan Manasse captured the CIF Southern Section Individual Tennis Championship becoming the first Mustang girls tennis player to win a CIF individual crown.
Manasse defeated Desiree Krawczyk in the final match held at the Seal Beach Tennis Center on Friday. Manasse rebounded from a 7-5 first-set loss to win the second set 7-6 (3). After a 10-minute intermission between sets and an injury timeout Krawczyk, who was suffering from leg cramps, was unable to continue.
Manasse entered the postseason after winning her second consecutive Bay League title, beating Peninsula freshman Kenadi Hance 5-7, 6-3, 10-6 at the Jack Kramer Club.
Rachel Bush led Redondo’s girls cross country team to a 10th-place finish at the Nike Cross Nationals, propelling the Sea Hawks to the best team finish from a California girls team. File photo
In cross country competition, Redondo turned in the best performance by a California girls team finishing 10th at the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, OR.
Rachel Bush placed 39th with a time of 18 minutes, 37 seconds to lead Coach Bob Leetch’s squad. The Sea Hawks scored 262 points, which topped Simi Valley (11th, 287) and Saugus (12th, 325), the two teams who finished ahead of Redondo in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 Championships.
Without relying on a single standout runner, Redondo’s success this season was accomplished with a true team effort where one of five runners had the ability to emerge as the team’s fastest in any given meet.
Joining Bush in the Sea Hawk’s impressive showing in Portland were Kayla Ferron (64th, 18:57), Cara Ulizio (67th, 18:59), Lyndsey Mull (128th, 19:56), Alexis Thibodeaux (140th, 19:56), Anique Villegas (180th, 20:55) and Nicole Pederson (184th, 21:06).
Bay League individual champion Rebecca Mehra, of Palos Verdes, finished 16th overall with a time of 18:18.
In boys competition, Palos Verdes’ Jonah Diaz placed 6th with a mark of 15:31, making him the fastest male runner from California.