Laguna Beach cross-country sweeps Wave League crowns again
It hailed early on Saturday morning, but that was about the only thing that seemed out of the ordinary from the perspective of the Laguna Beach High cross-country program.
The weather had passed by the time the varsity races toed the starting line, and a Breaker emerged victorious in both of the featured races.
Logan Brooks and Jessie Rose won individually in leading Laguna Beach to a sweep of the Wave League championships in the Sunset Conference finals at Central Park in Huntington Beach.
The conference has chosen to combine the Surf League and Wave League finals into a single race for both the boys and the girls in its first two years of existence.
Brooks outran the field in 14 minutes 54.4 seconds, as Laguna Beach earned its third straight league title in beating Huntington Beach 23-53.
“Laguna’s thing is always to kind of come out at CIF and state, and then that’s where we showcase what we’ve got,” Brooks said. “I think we showed a little bit of what we have today, but we definitely have a lot more to come at those races.”
Mateo Bianchi (second, 15:03.5), Tanner Burton (fourth, 16:12.9), Christopher Drews (fifth, 16:17.8) and Gabe Neff (11th, 16:37.1) filled out the scoring quintet for the Breakers, who are ranked fifth in the CIF Southern Section Division 4 poll.
Rose had chosen to focus on water polo this fall, but the junior could not stay away after serving as the Breakers’ No. 2 runner behind Hannah Konkel last season.
“Every girl here is just such a hard worker,” Rose said. “It’s really encouraging. Everyone loves it. Everyone is positive. Just the atmosphere of our team is really great, how much everyone really wants to be here.
“We believed that we could stay together, just like we do in workouts. Every time you see someone in front of you, it just makes you want to push harder. It’s just so contagious, everyone’s work ethic.”
Rose led all girls at the meet with a time of 18:00.7, two seconds ahead of teammate Morgan Falkowski.
Nina Rogers (sixth, 18:57.9), Kaitlin Ryan (eighth, 19:31.7) and Sydney Schaefgen (11th, 19:47.2) helped the Breakers past Huntington Beach by a score of 28-59.
Laguna Beach, ranked No. 4 in Division 4, won its eighth consecutive league title on the girls’ side.
The top two teams in each of the four-team league finals advanced into the CIF preliminaries, which will be held on Nov. 15-16 at the Riverside City Cross-Country Course. Individuals of non-qualifying teams could also move on if they finished in the top eight of their race.
Corona del Mar’s girls have also qualified for CIF by appearing in at least two of the final four sets of rankings released by the section. The Sea Kings are currently ranked No. 10 in Division 3.
Los Alamitos swept the Surf League championships, edging Edison 47-49 in the boys’ final, while the Griffins’ girls defeated Fountain Valley 38-41.
Chargers coach Brian Brierly was thrilled to see his team qualify for the postseason, led by a 16-second personal record from August Garcia, who finished in fourth place.
Edison beat Newport Harbor 49-52 for the league’s second-place CIF berth.
“It was close,” Brierly said. “The whole race, I thought it was Newport out front. They’re very strong with their front three. It turns out that their No. 4 runner [Elliott Harrington] unfortunately dropped out of the race.
“That made the difference, but we were fighting. We knew it was going to be a coin flip, Los Al and us for the last CIF spot.”
The area secured the individual league titles in the Surf League. The champions were Newport Harbor’s Will DeBassio (15:27.9) and Fountain Valley’s Kaho Cichon (18:02.3).
BOYS’ CROSS-COUNTRY
Sunset Conference finals
At Central Park, Huntington Beach
3-mile course
Q - Denotes CIF individual qualifier
Surf League
Team Results
1. Los Alamitos 47; 2. Edison 49; 3. Newport Harbor 52; 4. Corona del Mar 71
Individuals
1. DeBassio (Newport Harbor) 15:27.9Q; 2. Pence (Corona del Mar) 15:46.4Q; 3. Rosenthal (Los Alamitos) 15:51.7; 4. Garcia (Edison) 15:53.1; 5. Gonzalez (Los Alamitos) 15:57.9; 6. Cleugh (Edison) 16:03.4; 7. Ritter (Edison) 16:04.6; 8. Clark (Newport Harbor) 16:05.4Q; 9. Becker (Los Alamitos) 16:05.8; 10. Ridenour (Newport Harbor) 16:06.4
Wave League
Team Results
1. Laguna Beach 23; 2. Huntington Beach 53; 3. Fountain Valley 65; 4. Marina 75
Individuals
1. Brooks (Laguna Beach) 14:54.4; 2. Bianchi (Laguna Beach) 15:03.5; 3. Cahuantzi (Huntington Beach) 15:51.7; 4. Burton (Laguna Beach) 16:12.9; 5. Drews (Laguna Beach) 16:17.8; 6. Mitchel (Huntington Beach) 16:20.4; 7. Walt (Huntington Beach) 16:22.4; 8. Nguyen (Marina) 16:25.7Q; 9. Augustus (Fountain Valley) 16:27.1; 10. Meis (Fountain Valley) 16:29.4
GIRLS’ CROSS-COUNTRY
At Central Park, Huntington Beach
3-mile course
Q - Denotes CIF individual qualifier
Surf League
Team Results
1. Los Alamitos 38; 2. Fountain Valley 41; 3. Marina 68; 4. Corona del Mar 71
Individuals
1. Cichon (Fountain Valley) 18:02.3; 2. Jahshan (Fountain Valley) 18:22.8; 3. Sullivan (Los Alamitos) 18:27.3; 4. Faris (Los Alamitos) 18:29.0; 5. Buchwald (Corona del Mar) 18:44.6; 6. Schwab (Marina) 18:59.8Q; 7. Ferris (Fountain Valley) 19:06.3; 8. Guerrero (Los Alamitos) 19:07.0; 9. Castillo (Marina) 19:14.0; 10. Paul (Los Alamitos) 19:14.9
Wave League
Team Results
1. Laguna Beach 28; 2. Huntington Beach 59; 3. Newport Harbor 62; 4. Edison 84
Individuals
1. Rose (Laguna Beach) 18:00.7; 2. Falkowski (Laguna Beach) 18:02.7; 3. Glassen (Newport Harbor) 18:27.8Q; 4. Gallegos (Edison) 18:39.7Q; 5. Adams (Huntington Beach) 18:50.5; 6. Rogers (Laguna Beach) 18:57.9; 7. Tamura (Newport Harbor) 19:08.7Q; 8. Ryan (Laguna Beach) 19:31.7; 9. Centeno (Huntington Beach) 19:35.7; 10. Roldan (Huntington Beach) 19:41.8
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