CROSS-COUNTRY : Esperanza, Corona del Mar Make Big Move

You can wad up the preseason cross-country predictions and throw them in the trash can. Forget the past. There will be a new pecking order when the Orange County girls’ rankings are announced this week.

And that’s pleasing news for two Orange County coaches whose teams pulled off big surprises Saturday at the Woodbridge Invitational. Esperanza and Corona del Mar came into the meet without much fanfare, but left their more celebrated opponents shaking their heads.

In the Division I girls’ race, Esperanza tied Irvine, which was ranked No. 14 nationally by the Harrier magazine. That Irvine won the tiebreaker by having a faster sixth-place finisher did little to dampen Esperanza’s enthusiasm.

“I knew we were talented, but nobody listened to me,” Esperanza Coach Rich Medellin said. “I felt we should have been in the top 10. We’ll see what happens. We’re going to bloom late.”

In the Division IV girls’ race, Corona del Mar packed its first five runners in the top 12 finishers and upset Laguna Hills, which was second in the State Division III meet last season.

“I’m very surprised,” Corona del Mar Coach Bill Sumner said. “The last 2 1/2 miles were brilliant on (his runners’) part. They came back and took control.”

First, however, they had Sumner in a frantic state when there wasn’t a Sea King runner in the top 30 in the race’s first 800 meters.

By the finish, the Sea Kings had surged to the front. Brooke Meek was second in 18:21, then came Tracy Clark (third, 18:23), Dresden Howell (fourth, 18:41), Heather Bray (11th, 19:22) and Heather Taketa (12th, 19:25). The final team score was Corona del Mar 32, Laguna Hills 51.

Maribella Aparicio of Fillmore won the race in 17:25.

The boys’ divisions unfolded in predictable fashion, but that didn’t mean the meet lacked quality performances.

Katella’s Mike Love reaffirmed his status as the county’s top runner by posting the fastest time of the day. Too bad he was a whopping 46 seconds behind Agoura’s Ryan Wilson, one of the state’s best.

Wilson won the Division II senior race in a course-record 14:20, breaking the old mark of 14:21 set by Agoura’s Bryan Dameworth in 1990. Love was second in 15:06, just off his prerace goal of dropping below 15 minutes.

“I wanted to (break 15 minutes) . . . “ Love said. “I just felt dead close to the two-mile mark. I was hoping to go under 15, but it didn’t quite happen.”

He entertained no thoughts of matching strides with Wilson, who began to pull away just past the mile mark.

The expected season-long battle between Katella, with Love and Mike Moreno, and Newport Harbor, led by Jared Overton, for county team supremacy got off to an intriguing start Saturday.

Newport Harbor, which was led by Overton’s fourth-place finish in 15:18, won the Division II senior race over Burbank, 96-134. San Clemente was third with 157. With the exception of Love, Katella’s best runners were in the junior and sophomore races.

Meet notes

Saddleback, another county team looking toward No. 1, won the Division I juniors and sophomores races. . . . Ryan Wilkinson of Santa Margarita had the fastest time by a sophomore with a 15:23 clocking. It also was a course record for sophomores, breaking the old mark of 15:25 set by Katella’s Mike Moreno last year.

At the Clovis Independent boys’ cross-country invitational:

La Habra places sixth--Junior Jeff Domis of La Habra was the top Orange County finisher with a time of 16:26. Teammate Brandon Mahon finished 23rd with a time of 16:38. Other county teams included eighth-place Dana Hills, 13th-place Tustin and 14th-place Mission Viejo.