El Modena’s Victory Goes According to Plan

The El Modena girls’ cross-country team came into the Century League finals with a plan and executed it perfectly.

Vanguard runners finished in the top three places and managed to hold off Foothill to win the league title, 28-35.

“We wanted to go 1-2-3,” El Modena co-Coach Tom Weber said. “We knew [Foothill] was going to come after us after that.”

El Modena’s Jessica Dahlberg and Katie Kennedy ran together for the entire three-mile course at Yorba Regional Park. Dahlberg won in 18 minutes 16 seconds, one second faster than Kennedy.

El Modena’s Leslie Burton finished third in 18:28, six seconds ahead of Foothill’s Nici Desmond. Marie Leyrer of Villa Park finished fifth in 18:58.

In the boys’ race, Orange’s Nick Russell avenged a loss in the league finals last year, beating the defending champion, Manuel Estrada of Santa Ana Valley, by 10 seconds in 14:52.

“I knew exactly what he was doing by going out fast, because he did that same thing last year,” Russell said. “I put in a concerted effort in the second half-mile of the race to catch him.”

Estrada’s second-place finish helped the Falcons to their first team league title since 1991. They had 48 points, beating second-place Orange by six points.

Foothill, led by John Kuehn (third in 15:20), finished third with 59 points. El Modena, fourth with 81 points, was led by brothers Mike and Tim Allen, who both ran 15:31 for fourth and fifth places.