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The second-ranked Capistrano Valley girls cross country team showed off its depth Saturday at the 31st annual Laguna Hills Invitational at Laguna Hills High.

The Cougars battled the heat and preformed admirably as they finished with the best overall girls team time of 1:35:51.

The Cougars’ best mark came from junior Ashley Licata, who ran the best time of any county girl at 18:25.

Capistrano Valley’s freshmen, junior, and senior girls teams all finished ranked in first in Division 2.

And the Cougars managed to accomplish that without some of their best runners, such as Grace Schafer, who was out because of a back strain, Rebecca Deitch, who was taking the ACT, and Kayla Tresser, who was sick.

The host school was able to get in on the fun as well. Tristan Wasley’s fourth-place effort sparked Laguna Hills’ senior boys to a first-place team finish in Division 3.

“My senior boys are deep, and they run as a pack,” Hawks coach Chris Lynch said. “Having them run on their course as seniors one last time for them to go as champions, is the most I could ask for.”

On the boys side, the top county time was turned in by JSerra’s Andrew Burkhardt, who completed his race in 15:21. It was the second-best boys mark of the day, just two seconds behind Madera South’s Eduardo Herrera.

San Clemente’s Kelsey Carroll fared well for herself, too. She won the Division 1 senior girls race in 18:35.

“After the second mile, about a half mile to go, I decided, ‘I have to take this,’” Carroll said. “That’s what I did, I just didn’t give up, and the girls are great racers and helped push me.”

El Toro’s junior boys, Tesoro’s senior boys, and Northwood’s senior girls teams all finished in first in their respective divisions.