PREP CROSS-COUNTRY ROUNDUP : Katella Boys Edge Santa Ana at Invitational

In a showdown of Orange County’s top two rated boys’ cross-country teams, Katella beat Santa Ana, 69-75, to win the Division I team title Saturday at the Fountain Valley-Huntington Beach Invitational at Central Park in Huntington Beach.

Katella, which has been No. 1 in the county polls since the preseason, was paced by junior Edgar Benitez, who ran the three-mile course in 15 minutes 53 seconds, good enough for third place.

The Saints, the defending county champions and No. 2 in the county poll, placed three runners among the top seven, but could not beat the Knights.

“When Santa Ana’s in the race, our guys get excited,” Katella Coach Mike Cochrane said.

“We were really trying to hold them back to prepare for next week (the county championships).”

Wenceslado Morales (16:01), Luis Zaragoza (16:09) and Danny Rivero (16:12) were fifth, sixth and seventh for the Saints, the defending Sunset League champions.

The Katella boys’ team was not the only Knight squad to find Central Park to its liking.

Jamie Vaicaro led the girls’ team to the Division I team title by finishing first.

Vaicaro pulled away from University’s Meisha Wilson just after the two-mile mark, cruising to a five-second victory with a winning time of 19:01.

“I noticed that I left her (Wilson) on top of the hill,” said Vaicaro, a senior who posted the day’s second-fastest time overall.

Vaicaro’s winning effort helped the Knights (51 points) handle Fountain Valley (107) and Alta Loma (125).

The Barons fell victim to much the same problem as the Saints’ boys’ team, placing three runners among the race’s top five, but they didn’t have the depth to win.

The Barons’ Angie Winkler (19:26), Becca Armour (19:31) and Andrea Craddock (20:03) were third, fourth and fifth.

Thousand Oaks dominated the competition in Division II, scoring only 26 points to win the boys’ race and 29 for victory on the girls’ side.

Lancer standouts Kevin O’Doherty (15:20) and Kim Mortensen (18:33) easily posted the day’s fastest times while winning individual titles in Division II.

In other cross-country meets:

El Modena boys win in New York--Shawn Syphers finished 11th (13:37), Ryan Emenaker finished 13th (13:44), Zach Amos finished 15th (13:48) and Jason Shook finished 18th (13:51) to lead El Modena to a first-place finish in its race at the 2.5-mile Manhattan Championships.

Don Kennedy finished 21st (13:54) and Tim Allen finished 25th (13:57) for El Modena, which finished in the top five among all 294 schools divided among seven races.

In the girls’ race, Jessica Dahlberg finished 32nd (15:53), Tara Whitfield finished 36th (16:08) and Leslie Burton finished 38th (16:11), helping El Modena to an eighth-place finish.

Also finishing for El Modena was Kim Lacher, Katie Kennedy and Kaylee Whitfield. The girls’ race included 30 teams from 11 states.