When Yvette Sandoval passed Redondo’s Anique Villegas to finish in 19th place, she had little idea how much that five second margin would mean for her Mira Costa team.
In the first Bay League meet, Mira Costa’s girls cross country team raced out to a good start in defense of its league title by overtaking highly-ranked host Redondo, and it was Sandoval’s finish that made the difference.
With both teams even at 43 points, a tie-breaker was needed to declare a victor and Sandoval’s time of 17 minutes, 55 seconds gave the Mustangs the win.
Palos Verdes, led by individual winner Rebecca Mehra (16:18.55), finished a close third with 46 points followed by Peninsula (109) and West (118).
Kelli Sugimoto (16:19.48) and Jenna Tong (16:38) placed second and third for Mira Costa. Abby Hong (7th, 17:03), Vivien Cherrette (14th, 17:32) and Lauren Hagedorn (17th, 17:47) also contributed to the win.
Redondo had four top-ten finishers with Cara Ulizio (4th, 16:54), Lyndsey Mull (5th, 16:55), Rachel Bush (6th, 16:56) and Kayla Ferron (8th, 17:06) leading the way. Villegas finished 20th with a time of 18:00.
Redondo entered the meet ranked No. 3 in the CIF Southern Section-Ford Division 2 poll while Mira Costa held down the sixth spot. With the win, Mira Costa moved up to No. 4 while Redondo dropped to No. 5. Palos Verdes and West maintained their No. 1 and No. 5 spots, respectively, in Division 3.
In the boys competition, Palos Verdes is looking for its third straight Bay League title and showed why they ranked No. 1 in Division 3 with Sea King runners finishing in the first five spots led by Jonah Diaz’ first-place time of 13:47.
With 15 points, Palos Verdes ran away from Peninsula (77), West (82), Mira Costa (86) and Redondo (90).
In Division 2, Peninsula is ranked No. 3, Mira Costa is No. 9 and Redondo is No. 10. West is ranked No. 5 in Division 3.
Redondo was led by Will Tait who placed 7th at 14:36 while Mira Costa’s Zachary Adler led the Mustangs with a 9th-place finish at 14:41.
In an area with strong distance running programs, Mira Costa and Redondo will join other local teams in the South Bay Cup on Wednesday, Sept. 28 beginning at 2:45 p.m. at Columbia Park in Torrance. Along with the ranked teams from the Bay League, the girls teams from El Segundo and Bishop Montgomery are ranked sixth and seventh in Division 4, Chadwick’s girls are listed at No. 1 while its boys team is No 7 in Division 5.
The Lady Sea Hawks refused to let their narrow defeat in the first Bay League meet get them down as they ran away with the title of the Jim Danner Sweepstakes race at the Nike Pre-Nationals in Portland, Ore. last Saturday scoring 43 points, well ahead of second- and third-place finishers Trabuco Hills (147) and Warren (164).
Sophomore Kayla Ferron led Redondo with a 5th-place finish with a time of 18 minutes, 44.74 seconds, just ahead of teammate Lyndsey Mull who crossed the finish line at 18:45.16. Laura O’Neill (10th, 18:54), Rachel Bush (13th, 19:05), Kelly Ryan (14th, 19:06), Cara Ulizio (17th, 19:13) and Anique Villegas (58th, 20:16) also contribute to the Sea Hawks’ victory.
Led by Evan Malone-White’s 9th-place finish at 16:38.32, Redondo’s boys team captured the Division 1 championship. Tait placed 12th (16:41.54), Tyler Caracoza finished 16th (16:44.34), Garrett Klatte was 24th (17:05.35) and Alex Guzman finished 35th (17:22.32) for the Sea Hawks.
“Both teams ran, by their standards, poorly in their Bay League opener on Wednesday, but they turned it around and travelled 850 miles to Portland and ran lights-out,” Redondo coach Bob Leetch said. “I couldn’t be any more proud of these fine student-athletes. It was a banner day for Redondo cross country. First the boys win the Division 1 race in less than ideal conditions, and within 20 minutes the girls defended their Jim Danner Sweepstakes win with another exciting finish.
“Both teams rebounded well from their Wednesday races. Unlike other sports where having multiple competitions in the same week, it is not the norm in cross country. Due to the nature of racing to exhaustion, which is the point of the sport, it is very difficult to race at a high level within a week. For our boys and girls to capture wins in this highly competitive and revered meet is a real testament to their attitude and level of expectation.”
