P.V. Girls Win Cross-Country Meet

The Palos Verdes High girls cross-country team won its eighth Palos Verdes Invitational in nine years Saturday morning. Freshman Yoko Senga and sophomore Tami Wilcox ran personal-best times on the hilly, 2.2-mile course west of the Palos Verdes campus to lead the Sea Kings.

Thousand Oaks came back from third place after six races to win the boys title. The varsity competition was run in seven heats, starting with each team’s seventh runner, in ascending order. The team winner was determined by lowest total time. Palos Verdes was leading Hart and Thousand Oaks by seven and eight seconds, respectively, after six races. But Thousand Oaks’ Eric Spayde ran 11:44 to beat Hart’s Steve Lepken by seven seconds and Palos Verdes’ Aaron Rogers by 37 seconds to vault his team into first place.

“I was pleased with all the kids today,” said Palos Verdes Coach Joe Kelly. “I’m pleased we were in position to win the boys division, but we didn’t run our best.” The Palos Verdes boys finished third and Torrance placed eighth in the 22-team field.

Palos Verdes’ Wilcox was the top South Bay performer in the girls division with a time of 14:04. Erica Sunni of Wilson High was the overall girls winner in 13:39.

Junior Israel Pose of Torrance took second place overall in the boys division and was the top South Bay performer. His time of 11:24 was just one second behind Mt. Carmel’s Clay Biddle, who won in 11:23.