ORANGE- Crean Lutheran boys and girls cross country coach Tim Brink wanted to use the Academy League Finals as an opportunity for both his teams to begin preparing themselves for the challenge of competing for a CIF-SS title.
Both took full advantage of their final race tune-up before CIF by winning league titles Tuesday at Irvine Regional Park.
“It is exciting to win both and we give all the glory to God,” Saints coach Tim Brink said. “We want to continue to keep the intensity of our training at a high level and come up with a good plan for Mt. SAC at CIF prelims.”
The Saints boys team, ranked No. 7 in CIF-SS Division 4, ended St. Margaret’s run of four straight Academy League titles and won its’ first ever league title by placing all five scoring runners in the top eight to finish with a score of 26 points.
Hot Shots Overtime: Academy League finals (11-5-13)
The Tartans (ranked No. 4 in CIF-SS Division 5) finished second with 44 points.
Oxford Academy (89) and Sage Hill (99) rounded out the top four teams that qualified for the CIF-SS preliminaries.
St. Margaret’s produced the league’s individual champion for the fifth straight year, as Collin Price broke away from Crean Lutheran’s Sean Pino in the second mile to win in a time of 15:24.
“Coming down the flat stretch of the course, I felt good,” Price said. “I knew the last part of the race was all downhill, so I went all out from there.”
Pino was second in a time of 15:46, while his teammate Kaleb Reyes (16:07) finished third.
Led by Lauren Maurer, the Saints girls’ team took home its second straight league title.
Maurer seized control of the race early in the first mile and coasted to her second straight individual league title in a time of 18:38.
“I was focused on helping to push our team and setting a good pace in the first mile,” Maurer said. “After about a mile and a half, I felt really good and started concentrating on finishing strong.”
Maurer’s teammates Mandy Reyes (19:03) and Shannon Howell (19:53) finished second and third.
Crean Lutheran had all five scoring runners finish in the top 15 to finish with 31 points.
St. Margaret’s (54), Sage Hill (82), and Whitney (85) rounded out the top four teams that qualified for CIF-SS preliminaries.
