PREP ROUNDUP : Quinonez Leads Santa Ana to Boys’ Cross-Country Title

ANAHEIM —  Frank Quinonez won the Century League cross-country championship, helping Santa Ana High School take the boys’ team title Saturday at Yorba Regional Park.

Quinonez ran the mostly flat, three-mile course in 15 minutes 14 seconds, outrunning second-place Kory Lynch of Villa Park by three seconds. Foothill’s Scott Leon was third in 15:20; Dan Simon of Villa Park was fourth (15:21) and Santa Ana’s Juan Arellano fifth (15:29).

Santa Ana, which was 5-0 in league dual meets, won the meet with 35 points. Villa Park was second with 61 and Santa Ana Valley third with 82. El Modena, which came into the meet in third place, finished fourth and will not proceed to the Southern Section preliminaries on Friday.

In the girls’ division, Susannah Thrasher of Villa Park ran an impressive race, winning the title in 17:28. Santa Ana Valley’s Teresa Beltran (17:59) was second, Villa Park’s Heidi Hammill (18:26) was third, El Modena’s Kristina Dahlberg (18:44) fourth and Canyon’s Debbie Henderson (18:47) fifth.

But while Foothill did not have a frontrunner, the Knights finished in an impressive pack taking ninth, 10th, 12th, 13th and 16th for 60 points, enough to win the team title. Sophomore Laura Amorfell led Foothill in 19:17.

Villa Park was second with 71, Santa Ana was third (72) and El Modena, which entered the league final in first place at 5-0, was fourth (75) but will advance to the Southern Section preliminaries as the league’s No. 3 representative.

“El Mo has been up there in the rankings most of the season,” Foothill Coach Jerry Whitaker said. “Our girls had to run well to get ‘em. I think what hurt them (El Modena) most is they went out with a lot of intensity and it took too much out of them in the end.”

In nonleague water polo:

Capistrano Valley 13, Marina 12 (OT)--Kevin McCalley scored his only goal 29 seconds into sudden-death overtime to give Capistrano Valley (22-1) the victory at Saddleback College. Capistrano Valley’s Paul Felton had five goals to lead all scorers. Jason Cox and Chuck Kenyon each had four goals for Marina (20-7).