THE PREPS : ROUNDUP : Los Alamitos Has Big Day in Cross-Country

To say Los Alamitos capped a big week at the Laguna Hills Invitational would be an understatement.

The Griffin girls, ranked second in the Orange County sportswriters poll, edged nationally ranked Thousand Oaks and Sunset League rival Esperanza to win the Division I junior/senior girls’ competition.

Los Alamitos scored 53 points, edging the Lancers (58), who are ranked eighth nationally by Harrier magazine, and the Aztecs (64).

The victory was even more impressive considering the Griffins held off Esperanza, 27-28, in the league-opening dual meet Thursday.

“It’s been a very emotional week for us,” Los Alamitos Coach Gordon Duff said.

The Griffins used a strong performance from lead runner Kim Bates, who finished fourth overall, to take first place. The sophomore ran 18 minutes 41 seconds for the three-mile course.

Thousand Oaks senior Kim Mortensen won the race with the day’s fastest effort, 16:49, followed by Irvine senior Jessica Corbin (17:49), who had the best clocking by a county athlete.

Other top finishers from the county were Huntington Beach junior Jennifer Spahr, who edged Santa Margarita junior Katie Nuanes by four seconds (17:55) in the Division II junior/senior race. And Corona del Mar senior Christy Cummins held off Pacifica’s Stacey Young to lead the Sea Kings to the Division III junior/senior team title with her victory (18.42).

County athletes won all three junior boys’ races, with Luis Estrada of Santa Ana Valley (Division I), Michael Murray of Santa Margarita (D-II) and Tyler Beardslee of Corona del Mar (D-III) taking individual honors.

Estrada ran 15:34, with Murray finishing in 15:22 and Beardslee 16:10.