PREP ROUNDUP : Trueba, Winkler Claim Sunset League Titles

Tony Trueba and Dan Gaston finished first and second to lead Huntington Beach to the Sunset League boys’ finals championship Saturday at Central Park in Huntington Beach.

Angie Winkler of Fountain Valley won the girls’ 8 individual title with a time of 18 minutes 3 seconds and Los Alamitos, ranked second in the county sportswriters poll, won the girls’ team championship with a 41-50 point margin over Fountain Valley. Esperanza was third with 65 points.

The Huntington Beach juniors pulled away from Edison’s Kent Roberts and Dylan Glatt in the final half of the race to give the Oilers the victory over the Chargers, 29-39. Trueba won the individual boys’ title in 15:25, one second ahead of Gaston. It was the Oiler boys’ first title since 1988.

The victory avenged a dual-meet loss in the final week of the season to Edison. Because of a scheduling conflict, Huntington Beach had to race its junior varsity against Edison’s varsity on Oct. 26.

“We were thinking that if Edison wanted to win, they were going to risk it and try to go out fast,” Trueba said.

Roberts held on for third place in 15:45, with Glatt (16:00) finishing fourth and Jess Strutzel of Huntington Beach (16:04) coming in fifth.

Jennifer Spahr of Huntington Beach (18:35) finished second in the girls’ race. Sophomore Kim Bates (18:46) and senior Amber Pierce (18:53) of Los Alamitos finished third and fourth to lead the Griffins to their first league since a 1991 Empire League victory.

“I was worried about Fountain Valley,” said Griffin Coach Gordon Duff, whose team escaped with a 27-28 dual meet victory over the Barons in the final meet of the season. “I know that Esperanza is always good, but a lot of our focus has been on them.”