Mayra Medina

School: Laguna Hills High

Sport: Cross-country

Class: Senior

Medina, in her fourth year on the varsity, has improved rapidly this season, but her performance Saturday at the Southern Section Championships was just short of a quantum leap. Medina, the Pacific Coast League individual champion, lowered her personal best 45 seconds on the grueling, three-mile Mt. San Antonio College course to 18 minutes 16 seconds--the best time by an Orange County girl--in winning the Division III race. The previous week at the Southern Section preliminaries, she reduced her previous best at Mt. SAC by 47 seconds. “The last six to eight weeks she has just turned on in practice and it has paid off,” co-Coach Debbie Wilkinson said. “She has the nickname Cat Paws. But we have changed that to Cat Nails, because she is just nails.” Saturday’s victory led the Hawks to their second consecutive Division III-AA title. Laguna Hills finished second in the State meet last season.

Other top performers:

Kathleen Bunce and Karen Benkovsky, who had 22 and 21 kills, respectively, to help Capistrano Valley Christian to a four-game victory over North Hills LA Baptist for the Southern Section Division V title.

Kim Coleman and Allison Englebrecht, who led the Corona del Mar block in shutting down Laguna Beach’s Rachel Wacholder in the Sea Kings’ three-game Division I title-match victory. Wacholder, who had 55 kills in a semifinal victory over Newport Harbor, was held to 14 against the top-seeded Sea Kings.

Lindsay Weiss, a Laguna Beach freshman who won her singles sets, 6-1, 6-2, 6-1, to lead the Artists to a 78-74 victory in games over Edison in a Division II tennis semifinal.

Anna Zaricki, who won all her singles sets in two Dana Hills’ tennis victories to lead the Dolphins into the Southern Section title match for the second time in four seasons. Zaricki’s 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 sweep against Santa Barbara San Marcos were key points in Dana Hills’ 10-8 upset.