Palos Verdes Girls Win 5th Consecutive Cross-Country Title

The Palos Verdes girls’ cross-country team ran into the golden-brown hills of Mt. San Antonio College on Saturday and came back with the Sea Kings’ fifth consecutive Southern Section 4-A championship.

The hot weather seemed to bother only the spectators as Palos Verdes runners Maya Muneno and Tami Wilcox led their team to five of the top 17 places.

Palos Verdes scored 51 points to second-place Buena’s 72.

Muneno led the Sea Kings by finishing seventh with a time of 18:54 for the three-mile course. Wilcox, a freshman, was also timed in 18:54 and finished eighth.

Wilcox, who was in the fifth grade when the Palos Verdes streak began, said the strategy was simple: “We just tried to beat people.”

Sea Kings Coach Joe Kelly said the five championships are a tribute to each individual team. “The only thing that’s important is this year,” he said. “The girls running today weren’t around a couple of years ago. Now they are part of our tradition.”

Palos Verdes travels to Fresno next Saturday to compete in the state meet, where the Sea Kings have won two consecutive Division I championships.

Also bound for the state meet is Torrance’s Israel Pose, who led the Tartars to an eighth-place finish in the boys’ 4-A division.

Pose ran a personal best for the Mt. SAC course, finishing fourth overall in 15:19, but the real surprise was his teammates.

“Everybody ran 30 seconds ahead of their prelim time,” Torrance Coach Jerry Holland said.

In the City finals at Pierce College on Saturday, Carson’s Steven Gonzales and Banning’s Roman Rendon finished third and sixth to qualify for the state meet. Gonzales ran 15:30 and Rendon 15:55 for three miles. San Fernando’s Obed Aguiree won in 15:16.

San Pedro’s Lucy Diaz came in ninth with 20:20 to lead the Pirates to a surprising second-place finish in the girls’ division that qualified them for the state meet.

Lucrecia Mendoza of Banning qualified for the state meet as an individual by placing seventh overall in 20:09.

Ryan Winn led Narbonne to fourth place in the boys division. He placed 19th individually.