By Robert Campbell | LB Indy
The Laguna Beach High School varsity boys cross country team cruised to an easy victory over second place Godinez in the Orange Coast League cluster meet on Wednesday, Sept. 24, at Irvine Regional Park. The girls, on the other hand, had to rely on senior Janie Crawford to break a 30-30 tie with Godinez to take the win.
The top five finishers account for the scoring. In case of a tie, the team with the highest finishing number six runner wins. Crawford finished sixth for Laguna and 12th overall with a time of 20:19.81, nearly 35 seconds ahead of the number six runner for Godinez, who finished 15th.
The frosh/soph boys finished 12 points behind Godinez for second place, denying the Breakers a 5-race sweep, as both JV teams won their races over second place Godinez.
Laguna’s number one varsity runner Cameron Zuziak was given the week off to recover from the personal record posted just fives days before at the Woodbridge Invitational Sweepstakes. As it turned out, his teammates didn’t need him, as the Breakers’ scoring five placed among the top 13 for the easy 33-50 win.
Senior Grant Barton led the way for Laguna with a second place finish overall in a time of 15:54.27. He and Costa Mesa’s Anuare Magana, (15:18.80) were the only two runners to break 16 minutes.
The remainder of the scoring five with their places and times were senior Liam Corrigan (6th, 16:16.63), and juniors Penn Nielson (6th 16:20.58), Mason Pitz (7th, 16:21.74), and Drake Butler (13th, 16:59.98).
Senior Natalie Kimball ran a 19:06.59, good enough for first overall but 48 seconds off the 18:19 PR she set on the same course last year in winning the league championship.
Following here were senior Brenna Merchant (3rd, 19:29.14), junior Taylor Alvarez (7th, 20:04.90), sophomore Kirsten Landsiedel (9th, 20:08.24) and junior Pearl Shoemaker (10th, 20:17.39).
The girls JV squad dominated Godinez 18-40, taking the top three spots and placing all five scorers in the top seven. Junior Lauryn Alvarez led the way for Laguna, taking first in a time of 20:33.82. Sophomore Greer Jacobs, (2nd, 20:52.57), senior Annie Brown (3rd, 21:14.73), sophomore Sabrina Flagstad (5th, 21:44.39) and senior Paige Vitolo (7th, 22:02.76) were the other four.
The boys JV team also took the top three spots and placed their scoring five in the top eight overall for a 21-37 win over Godinez.
Juniors Carter Fraser (17:09.49) and Tim Andrews (17:22.19), and sophomore Jake Mangus (17:23.26) went 1-2-3 to lead Laguna. Juniors Brody Seebass (18:37.27) and Sterling Marshall (18:40.37) took seventh and eighth respectively.
The scoring five for the boys frosh/soph were sophomores Sam Dameshek (5th, 17:57.13) and Ryan Whitlock (6th, 18:08.77), freshman Massimo Lucidi (8th, 18:13.32), and sophomores Liam Duncan (9th, 18:48.42) and William Kramer (13th, 19:12.79).
Next up for the Breakers is the Clovis Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 11, in Fresno’s Woodward Park on the same course as the state finals.
