Oilers’ Gaston Leads the Way at Invitational

A late surge put Dan Gaston ahead of the pack Saturday at the Central Park Invitational in Huntington Beach.

Gaston, a senior at Huntington Beach, pulled away from Basic (Nev.) junior Oliver Redig on the downhill section just after the two-mile mark to win the Division II varsity boys’ race in 15 minutes 24 seconds.

“(Redig) passed me going up the hill,” Gaston said. “I kicked the downhill and put some ground on him. After that, I looked back a little bit and he was a bit behind me.”

Redig finished second in 15:30, four seconds ahead of Oiler senior Tony Trueba.

Huntington Beach won the team title, scoring 78 points, ahead of Thousand Oaks (130) and San Diego Ramona (141).

University sophomore Allyson Marquand had the day’s fastest time to win the Division I varsity girls’ race in 17:39.

For Marquand, whose only regular-season loss came in this meet last year, the race was her first test after injuring a knee last weekend.

“I’m pretty happy with the race,” said Marquand, who lost to eventual Foot Locker National champion Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks in last year’s meet. “I’ve been taking it easy the last couple of days. I just wanted to run better than I did last year.”

Fair Oaks Del Campo edged Santa Ana, 66-85, to win the Division I boys’ race, with Del Campo’s Chris Farley posting the day’s fastest time (15:21) to win.

Saddleback (104 points) edged Costa Mesa (157) for third place. Century finished fifth with 184.

Jaime Carillo of Costa Mesa finished second overall with a time of 15:37.

Marina finished third in the Division II girls’ varsity race, scoring 95 points. Santee Santana won with 65 points. Las Vegas Cheyenne was the runner-up with 80.

At the Manhattan Cross-Country Invitational:

El Toro finishes seventh--El Toro boys finished seventh overall with a team time of 1:08:10 at the Manhattan Invitational.

In the Clovis Cross-Country Invitational:

Tustin boys win--Dan Smith finished second in 16:19 over a 3.1-mile course to lead Tustin in the small-schools division of the Clovis Invitational.

Orange Lutheran girls finish third--Katie Peters led Orange Lutheran in the small-schools division, finishing 12th in 20:34 over the 3.1-mile course.

In the Orange water polo tournament:

Aliso Niguel 12, Garden Grove 11--Aliso Niguel survived a late surge by Garden Grove (11-3) to win the Orange Tournament.