LAGUNA HILLS – The adage is that records are made to be broken. It is also said that good things come in threes.
Both were true on Saturday, as three county runners bested individual meet records at the 33rd Annual Laguna Hills Cross Country Invitational.
JSerra sophomore Nadia Tabrizi and freshman Anthony Grover broke the meet’s top Division 3 grade-level marks in winning their races.
“We knew we had to not rebuild, but reload because the Trinity League is so tough,” Lions coach Marty Dugard said. “We pushed the kids hard this summer. We challenged them to up the intensity in practice.
“Everyone has really stepped up, and it’s been fantastic. They’re a young team that’s changing the culture.”
Tabrizi came in at 18:17. The previous Division 3 sophomore standard had been set by Corona del Mar’s Brooke Meek (18:27) in 1992.
(Race results are listed at the bottom of the story.)
Grover blew away the field by nearly two minutes in his race. He turned in the top freshman time in meet history at 15:51, and he became the first freshman of any division to go under 16 minutes at the Laguna Hills Invite since Dana Hills’ Jake Ogden in 2012.
“I thought he did incredible,” Lions captain Peter Herold said of Grover. “Breaking 16 minutes as a freshman on this course is something he should definitely be proud of. It’s a great accomplishment.”
Herold, a sophomore, won his race in 16:09, with teammate Matthew Burkhardt placing third.
The third record to fall was perhaps the least surprising. Capistrano Valley’s Haley Herberg, an All-County selection last year, won the Division 2 junior girls race in 17:26, the fastest time of the day. That topped the previous best time of 17:29, established by Edison’s Shelly Taylor in 1990.
Herberg was the frontrunner throughout in a race against a fellow All-County athlete in Canyon’s Sara Leonard (2nd, 17:52).
“I never really looked back, so you can only assume that they’re right there,” Herberg said. “I heard people going, ‘Go Sara, go Sara.’
“I just had to keep going. When I saw my two-mile split, I thought, ‘Oh, I have a chance to PR. I could really get a good time.’”
Herberg, Alyssa Bautista, Hailey Kroger, Danielle Bigley, and Isabella Jin combined to run 1:34:15, which gave second-ranked Capistrano Valley the top girls overall team time at the meet. Fifth-ranked Canyon (1:35:25) was third, and No. 8 JSerra (1:36:57) finished fifth.
Servite showed that its team is getting better with age. Vince Sarino (16:07) and Mauro Rosales (16:14), now upperclassmen as juniors, finished first and second, respectively, in their race.
Sarino has learned the lay of the land and has started to strategize accordingly. He conserved his energy until the midway point at “Hawk Hill” and then kicked his way to victory on “Final Ascent.”
Led by seniors Kyle Hart and Patrick Polk, Canyon (1:21:14) finished just 4 seconds behind Mira Costa for the best boys overall team showing.
Foothill junior Stuart Kendall posted the county’s top boys time at 15:37 (third overall).
Of the 24 heats, the county won 15 of those races, with the boys taking home eight of those individual titles.
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LAGUNA HILLS INVITATIONAL
At Laguna Hills High
3-mile course
*denotes meet record
BOYS
Overall Team Results
1. Mira Costa 1:21:10; 2. Canyon 1:21:14; 3. Mission Viejo 1:21:34; 4. Poway 1:21:44; 5. Tesoro 1:21:52; 6. Vista Murrieta 1:22:05; 7. JSerra 1:22:07; 8. Woodbridge 1:22:30; 9. Newport Harbor 1:22:40; 10. Ocean View 1:22:49
Overall Individual Results
1. Ramos (Rubidoux) 15:05; 2. Gonzalez (Rubidoux) 15:11; 3. Kendall (Foothill) 15:37; 4T. Court (Mira Costa) 15:44; 4T. Chinn (Poway) 15:44; 6. Garcia (Newport Harbor) 15:49; 7T. Grover (JSerra) 15:51; 7T. Field (Newport Harbor) 15:51; 9. Graves (Hemet) 15:52; 10. Hachac (Costa Mesa) 15:54
Division 1 Senior
1. Chinn (Poway) 15:44; 2. Ramos (Warren) 15:54; 3. Downs (Poway) 15:57
Division 1 Junior
1. Villa (Vista Murrieta) 16:00; 2. Flores (Vista Murrieta) 16:25; 3. Rodriguez (Warren) 16:33
Division 1 Sophomore
1. Dukes (Aliso Niguel) 16:09; 2. L. Mitchel (Huntington Beach) 16:20; 3. Stein (Dana Hills) 16:21
Division 1 Freshmen
1. McKenna (Aliso Niguel) 16:17; 2. Denker (Dana Hills) 16:48; 3. Elsesser (Long Beach Wilson) 16:48
Division 2 Senior
1. Gonzalez (Rubidoux) 15:11; 2. Field (Newport Harbor) 15:51; 3. Souther (Woodbridge) 15:56
Division 2 Junior
1. Kendall (Foothill) 15:37; 2. Court (Mira Costa) 15:44; 3. Graves (Hemet) 15:52
Division 2 Sophomore
1. Ramos (Rubidoux) 15:05; 2. Garcia (Newport Harbor) 15:49; 3. Crites (Tesoro) 16:01
Division 2 Freshmen
1. Coney (Canyon) 16:35; 2. Belo (Mission Viejo) 17:03; 3. Lawson (Mission Viejo) 17:06
Division 3 Senior
1. Hachac (Costa Mesa) 15:54; 2. Smith (Pacifica) 16:05; 3. St. Pierre (Ocean View) 16:11
Division 3 Junior
1. Sarino (Servite) 16:07; 2. Rosales (Servite) 16:14; 3. Byrne (Santa Margarita) 16:16
Division 3 Sophomore
1. Herold (JSerra) 16:09; 2. Soto (Monrovia) 16:20; 3. M. Burkhardt (JSerra) 16:28
Division 3 Freshmen
1. Grover (JSerra) 15:51*; 2. Fitzgerald (Crean Lutheran) 17:43; 3. Nguyen (La Quinta) 17:43
GIRLS
3-mile course
*denotes meet record
Overall Team Results
1. Capistrano Valley 1:34:15; 2. Vista Murrieta 1:34:39; 3. Canyon 1:35:25; 4. Mira Costa 1:35:32; 5. JSerra 1:36:57; 6. Bishop Amat 1:37:40; 7. Tesoro 1:37:45; 8. Foothill 1:37:50; 9. Dana Hills 1:38:17; 10. Northwood 1:38:30
Overall Individual Results
1. Herberg (Capistrano Valley) 17:26; 2. Von Scherr (La Quinta/LQ) 17:47; 3. Leonard (Canyon) 17:52; 4. Chittenden (Mira Costa) 18:06; 5. Bautista (Capistrano Valley) 18:11; 6. Tabrizi (JSerra) 18:17; 7. McGettigan (Tesoro) 18:21; 8. Paez (Bishop Amat) 18:27; 9. Ruelas (Bishop Amat) 18:29; 10. Celis (Western) 18:35
Division 1 Senior
1. Ruelas (Bishop Amat) 18:29; 2. Diaz (Vista Murrieta) 18:52; 3. Miranda (Knight) 19:15
Division 1 Junior
1. Werner (Vista Murrieta) 18:56; 2. Del Bello (Long Beach Wilson) 19:24; 3. Sanacore (Los Alamitos) 19:25
Division 1 Sophomore
1. Paez (Bishop Amat) 18:27; 2. Haynes (Vista Murrieta) 18:41; 3. Meng (Dana Hills) 18:46
Division 1 Freshmen
1. Von Scherr (La Quinta/LQ) 17:47; 2. Velasco (Los Alamitos) 19:02; 3. Rust (Bishop Amat) 19:15
Division 2 Senior
1. Chittenden (Mira Costa) 18:06; 2. Celis (Western) 18:35; 3. Gonzalez (Woodbridge) 18:42
Division 2 Junior
1. Herberg (Capistrano Valley) 17:26*; 2. Leonard (Canyon) 17:52; 3. Bautista (Capistrano Valley) 18:11
Division 2 Sophomore
1. McGettigan (Tesoro) 18:21; 2. Inouye (Mira Costa) 18:35; 3. Matsunami (Newport Harbor) 18:36
Division 2 Freshmen
1. Carr (Canyon) 18:45; 2. Meade (Tesoro) 19:12; 3. Chittenden (Mira Costa) 19:22
Division 3 Senior
1. Powers (Corona del Mar) 18:55; 2. Vergara (La Quinta) 19:42; 3. Williams (Brea Olinda) 19:51
Division 3 Junior
1. Shulman (Santa Margarita) 19:02; 2. Saltonstall (JSerra) 19:44; 3. O’Brien (West Valley) 20:19
Division 3 Sophomore
1. Tabrizi (JSerra) 18:17*; 2. Abusaid (JSerra) 19:17; 3. Guinane (JSerra) 19:42
Division 3 Freshmen
1. Tung (Corona del Mar) 19:54; 2. Molina (Costa Mesa) 20:01; 3. Peters (Monrovia) 20:11
