Led by Taylor Beaudoin, Redondo’s girls cross country team edged Palos Verdes by one point to capture the team title at the second Bay League meet held Thursday at Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach.
Beaudoin improved her sixth-place finish in the first league meet to place third, one of four Redondo runners to finish in the top ten.
Redondo’s 41 points bested Palos Verdes (42) who won the first league meet by by two points over Mira Costa. The Mustangs finished third on Thursday with 48 points.
Redondo’s girls are ranked No. 6 in CIF-Southern Section Division 1, Mira Costa is No. 9 in division 2 and Palos Verdes is No. 1 in Division 3.
After placing second in the first league meet, Palos Verdes’ Jacquelyn Smith won the girls race completing the 3-mile course in 17 minutes, 35.14 seconds. Mira Costa’s Melia Chittenden, winner of the first Bay meet, was second at 17:47.2 followed by Beaudoin (18:01.19).
Helping Redondo claim the victory were Jean Echevarria-Herrera (8th, 18:29.32), Trinity Leonard (9th, 18:40.28), Isabella Landy (10th, 18:47.60), Nicole Beaudoin (11th, 18:49.35), Isabel Ramirez (20th, 19:23.24) and Natalie Hardiman (23rd, 20:36.49).
Mira Costa received a fifth-place finish by Alexis Johnson (18:13.97) followed by Amanda Han (12th, 18:53.24), Emily Jones (14th, 18:57.14), Brooke Inouye (15th, 18:57.92), Sierra andrade (16th, 19:04.31) and Jessie Gregson-Williams (19th, 19:18.33).
Mira Costa girls coach Renee Williams-Smith has been pleased with Chittenden’s performance this season.
“We were really excited about Melia,” Williams-Smith said. “She is really strong both physically and mentally. This is only her second year of running even though she is a junior. She was a high jumper her freshman year and did not run cross country. I held her back a little bit last year but she is proving that we don’t need to do that anymore.”
In boys competition, Palos Verdes’ Robert Franklin and Redondo’s Ethan Comeaux swapped positions in the second Bay League with Franklin taking top honors with a time of 15:06.95. Comeaux finished second at 15:10.99 followed by Mira Costa’s Ty Garrett at 15:32.00.
Garrett led a pack of Mustangs that had five runners finish in the top ten including Caleb Llorin (4th, 15:36.91), Xavier Court (5th, 15:37.95), Ethan Williams (8th, 15:47.64) and Cole Lewis (9th, 15:49.67).
Also helping Mira Costa win the boys team title were Michael Yaskowitz (12th, 15:57.95) and Scott Healy (26thy, 17:07.59).
Mira Costa’s 29 points were more than enough to defeat runner-up Redondo (49) and Palos Verdes (67).
Mira Costa is ranked No. 3 in CIF-SS Division 2 while Palos Verdes hold the No. 3 spot in division 3.
Redondo also had top-ten finishes by Harrison Fox (6th, 15:38.90) and Andrew Zavala (10th, 15:54.09).
Other Sea Hawk runners included Nick Elias (11th, 15:55.59), Ben Tait (14th, 16:04.69), Brian Adler (21st, 16:31.56) and Etienne Doidic (25th, 17:02.80).
Redondo was coming off an impressive performance at the 37th ASICS Clovis Invitational on Oct. 10 where the girls team placed first in three events and the boys squad finished second in three races.
Ethan Comeaux was the star of the Sea Hawk’s boys team winning the 5K race (16:00.5) and 1-mile run (4:58). He also placed second in the 2.1-mile event (10:53) to help Redondo finish behind Beaumont in all three races. Camarillo placed third in the 2.1-mile and 10-mile events while El Rancho finished third in the 5K.
Taylor Beaudoin was Redondo’s top female runner finishing third in the 5K (19:25.2) and 1-mile (5:42). She placed fourth in the 2.1-mile event (18:07) to lead the Sea Hawks to team wins over Madera South. Edison placed third in the 5K, Newbury Park was third in the 1-mile and Southlake Carroll (Tex.) finished third in the 2.1-mile.
Thursday’s Bay League meet will serve as a tuneup for the prestigious Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational that will celebrate its 66th year on Saturday, Oct. 24.
Last year, a record 25,000 participants compete in what has become the nation’s largest cross country invitational. The 3-mile course that includes “Valley Loop,” “Switchbacks,” “Poop Out Hill” and “Reservoir Hill” has become part of cross country legend.
Complete results available at prepcaltrack.com.
