SUNSET LEAGUE CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS : Taylor’s Third League Title Gives Edison Leg Up on Competition

Edison High School’s Shelley Taylor won her third consecutive Sunset League girls’ cross-country championship, leading the Chargers to the team title in the league meet Saturday at Central Park.

Taylor, a junior, covered the three-mile course in 17 minutes 50 seconds, winning by more than a minute. Santa Ana’s Juan Ramirez won the boys’ race in 15:44.

“I wanted to push myself a lot today,” said Taylor, who, along with Katella’s Martha Pinto, has been the county’s top runner this season. “I was mainly going for a good time and wanted to break 17:30, but I’m pretty happy with 17:50.”

The top three teams with the best overall record advanced to the Southern Section preliminaries next Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.

Edison won the girls’ meet with 31 points, and Ocean View was second with 92. Santa Ana finished with the same number of points as Huntington Beach (101), but broke the tie with a better sixth runner.

Fountain Valley won the boys’ race with 52 points for its fourth consecutive league championship. Santa Ana was second with 76, and Huntington Beach was third (78).

Santa Ana, which had a 4-2 dual-meet record to 5-1 for Huntington Beach and 6-0 for Fountain Valley, advanced to the section preliminaries as the league’s No. 2 team with its finish Saturday. Huntington Beach is No. 3.