Lady Mustangs win South Bay Cup

Web Pio Bay 1b — Defending champion Savannah Pio placed third while leading the Mira Costa girls cross country team to its third consecutive championship in the South Bay Cup. Photo

Preparing for its showdown with rival Redondo on Thursday, Oct. 14, Mira Costa’s girls cross country team won the 9^th Annual South Bay Cup before it hosts second Bay League meet at Polliwog Park.

Mira Costa’s win at the South Bay Cup was its third consecutive championship and marked the seventh time in the nine years of the event that the girl’s team has placed among the top two finishers.

Savannah Pio, who won last year’s South Bay Cup in 17 minutes, 28 seconds, settled for a third-place finish this year with a mark of 17:44. Chadwick’s Jaye Buchbinder (17:37) edged Brianna Simmons (17:38), of Beverly Hills, for the girls title.

Other Mustang runners joining Pio with top-11 finishes were Aryn Foland (4^th, 17:53), Viven Cherrette (6^th, 18:02), Jenna Tong (8^th, 18:05) and Kelli Sugimoto (11^th, 18:18).

Prior to the South Bay Cup, Mira Costa had a strong showing at the Stanford Invitational, finishing third behind Jesuit (Portland) and Granite Bay. Pio led the Mustangs with a ninth-place finish at 18:17. Sugimoto (18:59) placed 21^st followed by Tong (28^th, 19:12), Foland (33^rd, 19:21), Cherrette (53^rd, 19:44) and Shannon Hagedorn (91^st, 20:31).

In boy’s competition, Mira Costa had 83 points to finish second to West (38) and outpacing North (87), Torrance (118) and San Pedro (119). Adam Perez placed second for the Mustangs with a time of 15:07 and teammate Zack Adler finished ninth at 15:35.

Web Adam Perez — Mira Costa’s Adam Perez finished second in the South Bay Cup leading the Mustangs to a runner-up finish in the 9th annual event. Photo

Mira Costa’s boys placed 7^th at the Stanford Invitational behind Perez (23^rd, 16:37), Adler (27^th, 16:42), Travis Taylor (37^th, 16:50), Sammy Nunan (54^th, 17:06), Ryan Ascencio (80^th, 17:20), Bret Douville (89^th, 17:28) and Sean Judge (95^th, 17:33).

The girls teams from Redondo and Mira Costa hold the first and fifth spots, respectively, in both the CIF Southern Section Division 2 and the DyeStateCal Division 2 rankings.

Redondo held its top runners out of the South Bay Cup, resting them for the Warren Stauffer Invitational held last Saturday at Hollydale Park in South Gate where the Lady Sea Hawks won the team championship outpacing Bonita and the boy’s team had a strong second-place finish behind Warren.

Kelly Ryan captured the girls title with a 17:24 mark followed by Kayla Ferron (2^nd, 17:30) and Cara Ulizio (3^rd, 17:31). Lyndsey Mull and Laura O’Neill tied for fourth with times of 17:33, Rachel Bush placed sixth at 17:36 and Anique Villegas finished tenth at 18:13.

Redondo’s boys team was led by Tyler Caracoza, who finished sixth at 15:23, just ahead of teammate Dezhan Bland (7^th, 15:24). Evan Malone-White (12^th, 15:28), Garret Klatte (14^th, 15:29) and Nicholas Herold (17^th, 15:31) helped the Sea Hawks to their second-place team finish. ER