Peninsula Girls Finish Fourth at State Meet

The Peninsula High girls’ cross-country team’s plan self-destructed in the closing stages at the state championships at Woodward Park Saturday, and the Panthers were unable to unseat Agoura, which won its third consecutive Division I title.

Despite a surprising third-place finish by sophomore Molly Mehlberg, Peninsula, which had defeated Agoura twice during the regular season, finished fourth with 117 points. Agoura won with 75 points, followed by Irvine (109) and San Diego Mt. Carmel (113).

Mehlberg covered the 5,000-meter course in 18 minutes 34 seconds, 26 seconds faster than her time run in placing 19th as a freshman.

“We were supposed to take the first mile pretty hard and the hang in there for our lives the last mile,” Mehlberg said.

The tactic was working, too.

While Fallbrook’s Milena Glusac and Agoura’s Amy Skieresz dueled for the individual title, Peninsula was winning the battle back in the pack.

The Panthers’ top first runners were ahead of Agoura’s No. 5 runner with a mile to go and appeared on the verge of a championship.

That is until Alisa Scudamore, Peninsula’s fifth-runner at the time, began to struggle with 600 meters remaining before finishing 114th.

“They gave it their all and we had Agoura on the ropes,” Peninsula Coach Joe Kelly said. “Our kids were running dynamite. It’s a proud feeling but it’s an empty feeling. Our trademark has been the pack and I never dreamed this would happen in a 1,000 years.”

Glusac, fresh from a course record at last month’s Mt. San Antonio College invitational, won her second consecutive title, finishing in 17:14--a second off her state meet record set as a junior and 28 seconds ahead of Skieresz.

How close was the race for the team title?

Junior Jaime Artzner and sophomore Mary Blake, Peninsula’s second and third runners, were 13th and 18th in 19:02 and 19:07. Tiffany Burt, Agoura’s No. 3 runner, was 17th in 19:06.

“We were stoked up for the race,” Blake said.

Julie Meyers (44th) and Devon Warren (79th) were Peninsula’s other scorers, but Scudamore’s fall was too much to overcome. Kristie Camp (19:23) and Limor Berci (20:22) sealed the victory for Agoura with 23rd and 55th-place finishes.

“This isn’t what people expected,” Artzner said. “I don’t think we came to state and choked or anything. It’s just unfortunate.”

Dan Minami was 18th in 15:54 as Peninsula finished fifth in the boys’ Division I race with 167 points. Hart defeated Thousand Oaks, 53-80, for its third consecutive Division I title.

Southern Section teams have won Division I boys’ and girls’ titles since the meet’s formation in 1987. Hart and Agoura are the only other schools besides the Palos Verdes girls, which won titles from 1987-89, to win three Division I championships in a row.

Marcus Ferrara and Jodi Dailey of South Torrance qualified in Division III as individuals.

Ferrara was among a lead group of eight with a mile to go in the boys’ race before Lynbrook’s Jason Balkman pulled away to win in 15:30. Ferrara finished ninth in 16:00. Dailey was 39th in the girls’ race in 19:57.