Peninsula Girls Outrun Agoura

Jamie Artzner and Molly Mehlberg never doubted the Peninsula High girls’ cross-country team could beat Agoura, the two-time State Division I champion, but they sensed that others had doubts.

The two silenced any critics at the Mt. San Antonio College invitational Saturday. Artzner and Mehlberg placed sixth and ninth in the team sweepstakes race and Peninsula totaled 90 points to defeat State Division II champion Huntington Beach Edison (102) and Agoura (108).

It was the Panthers’ second victory over Agoura. Peninsula, which finished second to Agoura at last season’s State meet, won the Kinney Staub invitational Oct. 10 to become the first team to beat Agoura in three seasons.

However, Agoura ran without its third and fifth runners. Kristie Camp failed to finish after spraining an ankle and Tiffany Burt was taking the Scholastic Aptitude test.

Despite the loss, Agoura remained ahead of Peninsula in the Southern Section and State Division I rankings. The teams will likely meet again at next month’s Southern Section final at Mt. SAC and the State championships in Fresno.

Artzner, though, is optimistic that Peninsula will overtake Agoura at the top of the rankings after its performance Saturday.

“Our team was kind of looked down upon,” Artzner said. “All these other teams were like, ‘Oh (Agoura), they’re so much better than Peninsula.’ Hopefully, they’ll recognize our name. We we’re not publicized or talked about but we were excited to prove ourselves.”

Artzner and Molly Mehlberg finished the hilly, three-mile course in 18 minutes 49 seconds and 19:02 despite mud and bad footing from overnight rain. Mary Blake (19:33), Lynn Snyder (19:50) and Julie Meyers (20:00) finished 16th, 28th and 31st to round out the Peninsula scoring.

State Division I champion Milena Glusac won the race in 17:15, breaking the course record of 17:16 set by Kirsten O’Hara of Palos Verdes and Deena Drossin of Agoura in 1983 and 1990.

Agoura’s Amy Skieresz (17:57) and Kay Nekota (18:42) finished second and fifth, but Peninsula placed its first five ahead of Agoura’s fifth runner in 58th place to offset the difference.

“We knew it would be harder to win (than at Kinney Staub), but they can’t still say they weren’t at full strength,” Mehlberg said. “I don’t think it would have made a difference last time, I think we’re a lot better overall and tighter as a pack.”

In the boys’ sweepstakes race, Peninsula’s Dan Minami placed seventh in 15:31 and Kenny Goodrich was 23rd in 16:05 as the Panthers placed sixth with 162 points.

Thousand Oaks placed three runners among the top 15 to win with 98 points, followed by Madera (114), Anaheim Katella (121), Newhall Hart (133) and Sacramento Jesuit (154).