Securing four of the top six spots, the girls team from Redondo won the second Bay League cross country meet held at Palos Verdes last week.
After placing second to rival Mira Costa on a sixth-runner tiebreaker in the first league meet, the Sea Hawks tallied 31 points in the second race to finish ahead of Palos Verdes (38), Mira Costa (64), Peninsula (1-7) and West (119).
Redondo and Mira Costa are ranked No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, in the CIF Southern Section-Ford Division 2 poll while Palos Verdes and West are listed as No. 1 and No. 5 in Division 3.
Redondo’s Cara Ulizio (19:35.05) placed second to Rebecca Mehra (19:23.50) of Palos Verdes. Sea Hawk runners Kayla Ferron (19:34.65), Lyndsey Mull (19:57.34) and Rachel Bush (20:11.10) took the fourth through sixth sports, respectively.
Also contributing were Alexis Thibodeaux (14thy, 21:08.14), Anique Villegas (17th, 21:30.09) and Sienna Hsu (27th, 22:39.67).
Mira Costa was led by Jenna Tong, who placed 3rd with a time of 19:45.01. Other Mustang runners included Kelli Sugimoto (8th, 20:34.69), Sarah Locke-Henderson (16th, 21:24.05), Abby Hong (18th, 21:41.94), Vivien Cherrette (19th, 21:49.82), Kelly Jeong (20th, 22:00.14) and Yvette Sandoval (24th, 22:21.13).
The boys competition featured five teams ranked in the top ten and the race upheld its billing. Palos Verdes senior Jonah Diaz broke the course record by almost 30 seconds, running a 15:43.07 to lead the state’s top-ranked team in Division 3 to a 27-point finish and a team-time record of 83:39.
Peninsula defeated Mira Costa on a sixth-runner tiebreaker for second place with 69 points ahead of Redondo (73) and West (98). In the CIF Southern Section-Ford Division 2 poll, Peninsula is ranked No. 5, Mira Costa is No. 6 and Redondo is No. 10. Palos Verdes is No. 1 in Division 3 followed by West at No. 6.
Mira Costa was led by Adam Perez, who finished 5th with a time of 16:58.07. Zach Adler (10th, 17:12.26), Travis Taylor (12th, 17:13.58), Sammy Nunan (15th, 17:25.84), Pablo Diaz (27th, 18:04.03), Nico Pappas (29th, 18:17.47) and Michael Goldberg (33rd, 18:28.71) contributed for the Mustangs.
Redondo also had two runners place in the top ten with Evan Malone-White (4th, 16:48.92) and Tyler Caracoza (8th, 17:07.87) leading the Sea Hawks. Garrett Klatte (16th, 17:32.11), Dustin Herold (22nd, 17:50.32), William Tait (23rd, 17:52.13), Alex Guzman (26th, 18:02.67) and Dagmay Demsas (35th, 20:11.09) also helped the team.
On Oct. 8, Mira Costa competed in the Central Park Invitational at Fountain Valley High School with the girls team capturing the Division 1 championship and the Mustang boys team placing second in the same division.
Sugimoto was the third girl to finish the 3-mile course with a time of 17.59. Tong (6th, 18:13), Hong (17th, 19:10), Cherrette (19th, 19:12), Locke-Henderson (24th, 19:21), Sandoval (40th, 19:47) and Lauren Inouye (53rd, 20:04) contributed to the Mustangs whose 69 points bested Warren (125) and Santa Margarita (128).
Arcadia ran away with the boys title scoring 33 points, well ahead of Mira Costa (108) and Burbank (129). Perez led the Mustangs with a 9th-place finish at 15:42. Adler (17th, 16:01), Taylor (19th, 16:03), Nunan (30th, 16:18), Pappas (37th, 16:28), Diaz (67th, 16:51) and Justin MacDonald (91st, 17:13) also competed for Mira Costa.
Both schools are scheduled to compete in the 64th Annual Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational Saturday at 8 a.m. West will host the Bay League finals on Thursday, Nov. 3 beginning at 1:30 p.m.
