HIGH SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY : Yucaipa Girls Dominate Southern Section Final

After losing two titles by a total of two points last year, the Yucaipa High girls’ cross-country team dominated Saturday’s Southern Section championships at Mt. San Antonio College.

The Thunderbirds, the No. 3-ranked team in the Harrier magazine’s national poll, placed five runners among the top 12 finishers in the Division II race to total 31 points to the 81 of runner-up Dana Hills.

Yucaipa had finished third--two points behind champion Huntington Beach Edison--in last year’s section championships before tying Clovis Buchanan for first in the state championships, only to finish second on the tiebreaker.

“Believe me, we used that as motivation this season,” Coach Jim Clendaniel said. “We came so close to winning last year.”

Glendora St. Lucy’s senior Annie Ebiner ran the three-mile course in 17 minutes 25 seconds to defeat Irvine University freshman Allyson Marquand (17:38) for the individual Division II title.

The Yucaipa boys, paced by individual champion and Clendaniel’s son Sean, also won, defeating Anaheim Katella, 84-93.

In other races, Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks won the Division I girls’ title with the fastest time of the meet (17:17), Ojai Nordhoff won the Division III boys’ and girls’ titles for the second year in a row and Morro Bay won its third consecutive Division IV boys’ championship.