PREP CROSS-COUNTRY ROUNDUP : Irvine Girls Again Beat Nationally Ranked Peninsula

The 14th Newport-Irvine Rotary Club Invitational must have brought about a sense of familiarity for Irvine girls’ cross-country Coach Randy Rossi.

For the second consecutive year, his Vaquero team defeated a nationally ranked Palos Verdes Peninsula team to win the Division I varsity race Saturday on the Woodbridge High School campus.

“I am thrilled,” Rossi said. “I kind of expected a good performance today.”

Rossi’s expectations are understandable, coming from a coach who returns five of his top seven runners from the team that won the State Division I title last season.

What makes that astounding is the fact that the Vaqueros’ leading runner, Jessica Corbin, an All-Orange County first-team selection by The Times last season, did not compete because of a hip injury.

“The whole group just really responded to the challenge,” Rossi said.

The Vaqueros edged the Panthers, 50-53, fueled by a third-place finish from exchange student Anna Kaisa Niemi, who ran the three-mile course in 18 minutes 33 seconds.

In the girls’ Division II race, Agoura’s Amy Skieresz posted the day’s fastest time by a girl as she ran away from the competition, finishing in 17:22.

El Toro was the surprise winner of the girls’ team title, scoring 37 points. The Chargers, led by Briana Frigo’s eighth-place finish (18:47), also posted the fastest team time (a combination of the team’s top five times) of 1:35:09.

Eliaser Estrada of Santa Ana Valley (18:03), Nancy Dollar of San Clemente (18:08) and Santa Margarita’s Katie Nuanes (18:18) finished second, third and fourth in the Division II race.

Capistrano Valley standout Adalberto Sanchez cruised to the fastest time of the day, winning the Division I seniors boys’ competition.

“I have trained a lot more this year,” said Sanchez, a senior, about his 26-second improvement over the same course last season.

Sanchez ran 15:00 to edge Newport Harbor’s Shahram DeZahd (15:12) to take top honors.

Palos Verdes Peninsula (76 points) edged the Sailors (80) for the team title and won the overall team time trophy as well, posting a 1:18:16 mark. Santa Ana (1:19:14) and Katella (1:19:35) finished second and third in the overall team battle.

Corona del Mar’s Tracy Clark won the Division IV varsity race, leading the Sea Kings to a team title.

Clark started in the middle of the pack, but moved to the lead by the halfway point and never looked back, finishing in 18:24.

“It was too fast for the early part of the race,” Clark said.

“Maybe later in the year I can go out that hard, but not yet.”

Buena Park freshman Heather Garritson ran 18:23 to win the Division III frosh/soph race, despite having to avoid spectators on the course, one of whom she ran into after the mile mark, and a wrong turn just before the mile mark.

In the Sunny Hills Invitational boys’ race:

Anaheim wins team title--In the senior boys’ race, Chino Ayala’s Jeff McLarty set the three-mile course record in 15:50 and Sunny Hills’ Garrett Jensen finished second in 16:13. Anaheim captured first place in the team competition, led by Gabriel Valdovinos’ eighth-place finish in 17:05.

In the junior boys’ race, Sunny Hills’ Ranen Bhattacharya finished second in 16:55 and Ceasar Serrano (Loara) finished third in the freshman boys’ race.

In the girls’ frosh/soph race, Sunny Hills’ Tatiana Berdote finished fourth in 21:44 and Becky Ihlendorf (Rosary) placed fifth in 21:48. Rosary finished third, behind Chino Ayala and Lakewood St. Joseph.