Peninsula Girls Have 3 No. 1s : Cross-country: Not only are the Panthers the top-ranked team in Division I, they have two No. 1 runners.

As freshmen, Peninsula High’s Jaime Artzner and Molly Mehlberg were looking for something to do after school.

Artzner, now a junior, wanted to be on the drill team, but her desire to be with a friend changed her mind. Mehlberg, a sophomore, wanted a spot on Peninsula’s tennis team, but she missed tryouts and switched sports.

Their decisions to join Peninsula’s cross-country team have made quite an impact on the program.

With Artzner and Mehlberg taking turns running in the team’s No. 1 spot, the Peninsula girls climbed to No. 1 in the Southern Section Division I coaches’ poll after winning the sweepstakes race at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational Oct. 24.

Coach Joe Kelly said he likes his team’s chances of winning the section and state championships. Peninsula begins postseason competition Saturday in the Southern Section preliminaries at Mt. SAC.

Last year, the Panthers finished second to Agoura at the state meet. This year, Kelly and his runners are hoping the story has a different ending.

At the Kinney Staub Invitational Oct. 10, Peninsula became the first team to beat Agoura in three seasons. Agoura, ranked No. 1 in the nation by Harrier magazine at the start of the season, was beaten again by Peninsula at the Mt. SAC Invitational.

“It might sound trite, but there is a good chemistry among the group,” said Kelly, who coached several championship teams at Palos Verdes High before the district’s three high schools consolidated to form Peninsula last year.

“We have a couple girls who are really hard-core workaholics and have a tremendous work ethic,” he said. “And then we have a couple of girls who are very loose and keep everybody laughing. There’s a little bit of everything on the team.”

One girl in particular helps keep the team’s energy level high, Kelly said.

“Jaime Artzner is a practical joker,” he said. “But on race day there is no better person to have on your team. During workout time it’s generally the job of everybody else to keep Jaime honest. But during races, Jaime keeps everybody else honest.”

Artzner found humor in everything, even cross-country, before she became a member of the team.

“We use to make fun of (cross-country),” Artzner said. “We’d say ‘Oh, my gosh, they run to Marineland for fun.’ Now we don’t even think that’s a bad run. It’s funny how things have changed.”

Mehlberg stays close to Artzner during practice and said her teammate’s humor keeps her mind “totally off the hard workouts.”

The two have become friends and the team chemistry Kelly talks about was developed on this year’s squad, Artzner said.

“I don’t think most of us would have been friends at school if we hadn’t had cross-country,” Artzner said. “Our paths probably wouldn’t have crossed. It’s great that (cross-country) is something we all have in common. We’re a lot closer friends than we were last year.”

Artzner and Mehlberg, who were part of last year’s Southern Section and state runner-up team, didn’t know what to expect this season.

“Last year, I was so new and didn’t know what was going on,” Mehlberg said. “We were really good, but we relied on two very good runners. This year, we have total depth because we’re all pretty much the same. I guess that’s what you need, a tight pack.”

Peninsula’s seven varsity runners have used their strong grouping to an advantage, boosting each other’s confidence during races.

At the Mt. SAC Invitational, Artzner and Mehlberg finished the hilly, three-mile course in 18 minutes 49 seconds and 19:02 to finish sixth and ninth, respectively. Mary Blake (19:33), Lynn Snyder (19:50) and Julie Meyers (20:00) rounded out Peninsula’s scoring by finishing 16th, 28th and 31st.

“When we’re running together in a pack, it makes you feel so good,” Artzner said. “We feel invincible, like we’re all together and no one wants to be the one to break the pack.”

In Saturday’s section preliminaries, the top four teams qualify for the Nov. 21 final. The state championships will be run Nov. 28 at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Agoura, the two-time state Division I champion, is expected to be Peninsula’s main competition. But the Panthers’ obsession with Agoura no longer applies after outrunning the Chargers at two meets this season.

“Last year, all we thought about was Agoura, Agoura, Agoura,” Artzner said. “This year we just don’t think of Agoura.”