Flintridge Prep, Crescenta Valley, La Cañada cross-country look for more success at finals

Championships and advancement to the CIF State Meet are the two supreme goals of the Flintridge Prep boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams, along with the La Cañada High girls and Crescenta Valley boys at Saturday morning’s CIF Southern Section Championships at Mt. San Antonio College.

Among the pair of Rebels’ qualifiers, the girls start first in the Division V championship at 9:05 a.m. looking for a three-peat. Flintridge Prep not only enters top-ranked in its division, but the Rebels are coming off an impressive 32-96 victory over Pacifica Christian in the first of two Division V preliminary heats.

If there’s a bonus for Flintridge Prep, it’s that rival Mayfield Senior School, which defeated the Rebels, 23-37, on Halloween at the Prep League championships at Los Angeles Pierce College, has been bumped up to Division IV this season.

“Hey, if our only loss is to Mayfield, I think we can all live with that,” Flintridge Prep co-Coach Mike Roffina said. “We’re excited about what we can accomplish not just at the divisional finals, but at state the following week. It should be real interesting and fun.”

Last season, the Rebels claimed their second consecutive CIF-SS championship by holding off Mayfield, 36-42.

Junior Natalie O’Brien paced the squad in that race by taking third in 18 minutes, 53 seconds. At last week’s preliminaries at the Riverside City Cross Country course, O’Brien was Flintridge Prep’s No. 2 runner, placing sixth overall in 18:52.8, just behind fifth-place teammate Sophie Gitlin (18:52.7).

Flintridge Prep boys’ varsity cross country runners, led by Jack Van Scoter, center, took the league title with runners finishing in the top five spots at Prep League Cross Country Finals at Pierce College in Woodland Hills on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015.

(Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

As for the rest of the squad, the Rebels placed their entire scoring unit within the first 15 spots.

Exactly an hour after the girls start their quest for a championship, the Flintridge Prep boys will do the same at 10:05 a.m. in the Division V finals.

Like the girls, the Rebels boys were dominant at last Saturday’s preliminaries.

Top-ranked Flintridge Prep pummeled both No. 4 Thacher and No. 5 Xavier Prep, 45-133, as both schools finished with identical scores.

The Rebels are looking for a slice of redemption from last year as the short-handed squad finished second to Xavier Prep, 65-85, in the championships. While the flu has been an issue again this postseason, Flintridge Prep is considerably more healthy now than at this time last year.

Beside the team competition, Saturday presents what may very well be the final run at Mt. SAC for reigning All-Area Boys’ Cross-Country Runner of the Year Jack Van Scoter.

The senior has had his share of memories at the Walnut course, including last season when he won the Division V individual title in 15:07. Another victory this weekend would mark the third consecutive year a Rebel has won the individual title.

“Health has always been the key for us the last couple of years,” Van Scoter said. “I don’t know if it’s a matter of just getting unlucky or not, but we’ve trained hard and done what we could to try our best to avoid illness and injuries this time around.”

While Van Scoter makes Flintridge Prep scary, a strong crew behind the senior makes the team more than formidable.

Championships by both Rebels team on Saturday would mark the second time in three years that the school has been able to accomplish the feat.

For any team to advance to the season-ending CIF State Meet at Fresno’s Woodward Park the following Saturday, a squad must finish in the top seven. For any individual qualifier to advance, they’ll have to be one of the top five finishers from a non-qualifying team.

As for Crescenta Valley, the 10th-ranked Falcons get going in the Division I boys’ race at 9:25 a.m. in a loaded field that includes Pacific League rivals Burroughs and Arcadia.

The Falcons turned in some of their best work this season in Riverside by placing third in the second prelim heat with 129 points.

If the results from both boys’ Division I heats are combined, then the Falcons finished seventh last week overall in the division with 289 points, which would make them the final state qualifier.

“We’re well aware of just how tough our division is and it’s a goal every year to advance to state,” Crescenta Valley Coach Mark Evans said. “We have a good group and they’re getting better every week.”

Last year, an underdog Falcons team came up one point shy of qualifying to state, finishing eighth with 216 points behind Warren (215).

Expect Falcons sophomore Colin Fitzgerald to lead his team as he’s coming off a fourth-place effort (14:56.2) at the prelims.

Rio Hondo League champion La Cañada will actually kick off the festivities for the locals in the girls’ Division IV championships at 8:05 a.m.

For the Spartans, the goal is earning a berth in state.

The Spartans enter ranked 10th and are coming off a sixth-place effort in the second heat of last week’s preliminaries.

While that may sound good, a combining of both Division IV heats puts La Cañada in 14th and over 100 points outside of seventh place.

“Anything is possible,” La Cañada co-Coach Jenn Loya said. “The girls have been training hard so that they can peak at this time of the year and that’s what they’re going to have to do to reach state. We’re aware of that.”

If the team is unable to advance, its seems likely La Cañada will at least have some representation in sophomore Katie Scoville.

The reigning two-time league champion finished eighth at the division finals last year in a time of 18:36 to punch her ticket to Fresno. Last weekend, Scoville finished second in her heat with a time of 17:57.5.

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Andrew J. Campa, andrew.campa@latimes.com

Twitter: @campadresports