PREP ROUNDUP : County Teams Dominate Meet in Las Vegas

Orange County high school teams participating in the 26th Las Vegas Invitational cross-country meet revealed their best-kept summer secrets Saturday at Basic High in Henderson, Nev.

County teams won all four races--the El Modena girls and Huntington Beach boys in the large-school division, and the Vanguard boys and Villa Park girls in the small-school division.

El Modena’s strong lead runners helped the Vanguards, who finished third in the State Division III race last fall, outdistanced Vista, 59-93, for the girls’ team title.

Leslie Burton, Katie Kennedy and Jessica Dahlberg placed fourth, fifth and sixth, each running 15 minutes 42 seconds for the 2 1/2-mile course.

“They’ve gone up another level this summer,” El Modena Coach Tom Weber said of his team, top-ranked in the county.

Another rising team is Huntington Beach, led by juniors Dan Gaston and Tony Trueba, which won the boys’ team title.

Gaston was second overall, running the 2.89-mile course in 14:12. Trueba was fourth (14:26) to lead the Oilers past Vista, 72-89.

Fountain Valley senior Angie Winkler led the large-school girls’ race from the start and won in 15:18.

“My coach told me before the race that there were a lot of girls from our league here, so I better get ahead early,” Winkler said.

Sunset League foe Jennifer Spahr of Huntington Beach was third in 15:36.