MT. SAC CROSS-COUNTRY INVITATIONAL : County Runners Show They Belong With Best

With their performance Saturday over the hills at Mt. San Antonio College, Orange County’s high school cross-country runners reinforced the notion that they are in California’s upper echelon.

Saturday’s Mt. SAC Invitational brought together some of the state’s finest talent, and county schools made a huge impression.

Buena Park’s Carrie Garritson won the girls’ individual sweepstakes; Capistrano Valley’s Adalberto Sanchez ran away from the field in his boys’ Division I race, leading the Cougars to a team victory; the Trabuco Hills boys outdueled their Division II opponents for a team victory, and Edison and Santa Ana, the county’s top-ranked girls’ and boys’ program, took aim at some of the nation’s elite.

Edison and Santa Ana, which won titles at the Orange County championships last week, went east to Walnut to face fierce competition, and each finished second.

The Saints, notorious for their group-running style this fall, placed four runners among the top 21 for 101 points in the Division I team sweepstakes. Thousand Oaks, ranked fourth nationally by Harrier Magazine, won with 84 points in the meet’s featured race, which had the top 13 teams in the large schools section.

Senior Juan Zaragoza led Santa Ana with a 13th-place finish in 15 minutes 57 seconds over the three-mile course.

Katella, led by Mike Moreno’s fourth-place finish (15:24) and senior Delphino Resendiz’s 11th (15:51) was sixth with 158 points. Moreno, a senior, had the fastest time of the day by a county prep runner.

The Edison girls have also been successful with a pack-running strategy this fall. Saturday, junior Jennifer Formosa and senior Janndee Evans finished 10th and 12th, but the Chargers, ranked 20th nationally, were edged by No. 18 Palos Verdes Peninsula, 83-91.

Garritson found something different in the individual sweepstakes competition: someone to race against. After being pressed through a 5:26 opening mile by Bonita Vista’s Claire Becker, a three-time Kinney Nationals finalist, Garritson opened a substantial lead on the course’s first hill.

Garritson’s experience and tenacity were too much, and the reigning county champion easily won by 21 seconds in 18:25.

Only New York Tri-Valley High senior Kate Landau (17:27 on Friday) and Rincon Valley Junior High phenom Julia Stamps (17:57 Saturday) could muster swifter efforts in the meet.

Santa Ana junior Elisar Estrada (19:02), and Ocean View teammates Taryn Lawson (19:37) and Kenna Masuda (19:42) followed Garritson in that race’s top 10.

Sanchez, the Capistrano Valley junior who was third in the county meet last week, proved to be the class of his Division I boys’ race, putting 25 seconds between himself and his nearest competitor and winning in 16:13.