ORANGE-The road to the CIF State Cross Country Championships began on an impressive note for both the Laguna Beach girls and boys cross country teams, who each cruised to team titles at the Orange Coast League Finals Wednesday at Irvine Regional Park.
In the girls’ race, Laguna Beach’s Natalie Kimball won the individual league title.
Kimball, along with teammates Brenna Merchant, Kirsten Landseidel, Janie Crawford, and Godinez’s Amairany Ramos broke away from the main pack and vied for the lead throughout the first two miles.
Coming off the final hill of the course, Kimball opened a small advantage and sprinted hard down the final straightaway to win in a time of 18:19.
“I felt that if I could do most of the race near the front, I could do it to the end,” Kimball said. “Once we got to the top of the final hill, I accelerated downhill and having my teammates there helped me finish my race.”
Merchant (18:23), Landseidel (18:36), and Crawford (18:38) also placed in the top five, as Laguna Beach had all five scoring runners in the top nine and totaled 21 points to win its’ sixth league title in eight years.
“I told the girls to take the pace out hard early because I felt that we could endure more,” Breakers coach Steve Lalim said. “This win is a testament to their hard work.
Godinez (45) and Costa Mesa (87) finished second and third respectively and earned automatic qualification into next month’s CIF-SS Divisional Preliminaries.
Led by Veda Rebollar, the Breakers boys’ team (ranked No. 3 in CIF-SS Division 4) captured its’ first league title since 2010.
Rebollar (15:18) kicked strong in the second mile and held off a late surge by Costa Mesa’s Brett Bermudez (15:20) to claim the individual league title.
“The pace slowed down in the second mile, and I realized that I was going to have to push that mile,” Rebollar said. “It feels good to reach a goal that I worked so hard for.”
Rebollar’s teammates Cameron Zuziak (15:27) and Casey Koprowski (15:33) each placed in the top five to help Laguna Beach (23 points) defeat Costa Mesa (62) and Godinez (72).
All three teams qualified for the CIF-SS Divisional Preliminaries.
“Our philosophy has been to do the little things right so that big things will happen and that showed for us at this meet,” Breakers coach Scott Wittkop said.
