Girls Miss Podium, Finish Fourth at State

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By Robert Campbell | LB Indy

The CIF Southern Section’s third-ranked Laguna Beach High School girls cross country team finished fourth, 14 points behind second-ranked JSerra, at the state meet on Saturday, Nov. 29 in Fresno. Visalia’s Central Valley Christian took the Division 4 title with a convincing 78-93 upset of defending champion and favorite Bishop Amat of La Puente.

A mere 18 seconds separated Laguna’s scoring five, with each runner covering the 5K course in less than 20 minutes. Central Valley Christian was the only other team among the 23 entries to match that feat.

Janie Crawford finished first for the Breakers and 34th overall out of 193 runners with a time of 19:38. Fellow senior Brenna Merchant was next with a 19:48, good enough for 43rd overall. Sophomore Kirsten Landsiedel (47th), freshman Grace Lamontage (49th) and senior Natalie Kimball (52nd) rounded out the scoring five.

All five girls now have a place on Laguna’s all-time top 10 list at Woodward Park, with Landsiedel’s 19:52 and Lamontage’s 19:53 taking the ninth and 10th spots. Crawford, Merchant and Kimball are third, fourth and sixth respectively.

Junior Taylor Alvarez ran a personal course record of 20:16 to finish sixth for the Breakers and 64th overall. Fellow junior Pearl Shoemaker finished seventh and 73rd with a time of 20:25.

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