PREP CROSS-COUNTRY ROUNDUP : Young Wins, Helps Pacifica Take Garden Grove Title

For the third consecutive year, an individual victory by Stacey Young meant a team title for Pacifica at the Garden Grove League finals.

Young, a junior, covered the three-mile course at Mile Square Park in 18 minutes 10 seconds to lead the Mariners (22 points) to victory Thursday.

“Our goal was to run as a team and get all-league for everybody,” Young said. “But it was for me to run hard, too.”

Young’s time was 15 seconds faster than she ran two weeks ago, when Pacifica won its 19th consecutive league dual meet.

“Someone finally pushed her for once,” said Coach John Sanchez, referring to runner-up Bernice Carbajal of Rancho Alamitos, who finished in 18:27.

Young and Carbajal led from the start, with Katie Lindenmeyer of Pacifica and Karla Rojas of Santiago battling for third.

Lindenmeyer (19:24) eventually edged Rojas (19:39), with Pacifica’s Stacey Harker (19:49) and Krissy Parmenter (19:57) following in fifth and sixth.

“The girls want to get to [the Southern Section Division III] finals,” Sanchez added. “We have a good chance of making it.”

The Santiago boys rebounded from a one-point, dual-meet loss to Garden Grove earlier in the season to win the team title.

The Cavaliers dominated Thursday’s race, scoring 27 points; the Argonauts had 50 and third-place Rancho Alamitos had 76.

Eduardo Saldivar of Santiago held off Rancho Alamitos junior Gabriel Carbajal to win the individual title in 15:45. Carbajal ran 15:54 for second, just ahead of Aiyub Palmer of Garden Grove (15:56) and Santiago’s Robert Kennedy (15:59).