Aztec Girls, Oiler Boys Enjoy Victories in Park

Esperanza, the third-ranked girls’ cross-country team in Orange County, and Huntington Beach, the fourth-ranked boys’ team, showed why they are highly regarded, winning at the Sunset League finals Saturday at Central Park.

The Esperanza girls easily won with five runners finishing among the top seven and their slowest runner finishing 12th. Esperanza had 25 points, 32 points ahead of second-place Marina.

The Huntington Beach boys had a tougher time, needing first- and second-place finishes from Dan Gaston and Tony Trueba and a 15th-place finish from Simon Bhavilai to win with 34 points, nine ahead of second-place Esperanza.

Although the Oilers won the boys’ league finals, the Aztecs were declared league champion because Huntington Beach forfeited three league victories because of the use of an ineligible runner earlier this season.

“All that [stuff] is over with now,” Huntington Beach Coach Eric Anderson said. “We did what we wanted and won the league finals. So we finish second in league, go on to CIF and pick up from there.”

Gaston, a senior, led the Oiler boys, winning his first league championship by finishing the three-mile course in 15 minutes 53 seconds. He outlasted Trueba (15:56), the defending league champion and Orange County champion from 1995, and Los Alamitos’ David Byun (16:25), who was third.

Esperanza made it close with sixth-, seventh- and eighth-place finishes by Ben Carter (16:40), Jason Kincade (16:51) and Nathan Oleson (16:51).

The Esperanza girls cruised to the team victory although Marina’s Jennifer Spahr won in 18:42. Fountain Valley’s Kim Green finished second in 19:09.

The Aztec pack of Beth Weidler (19:14), Lisa Massoth (19:20), Kristin Chadez (19:23), Kristine Shedd (19:25) and Karen Mitchell (19:27) finished in third- through seventh-places, and they all passed Los Alamitos’ Kim Bates in the final mile.

Bates, who has been battling tendinitis, was eighth in 19:29. She finished third at the league finals last season.

The Griffin girls still qualified for next week’s Southern Section prelims. Los Alamitos finished fourth in the league finals with 92 points, behind second-place Marina (57) and third-place Fountain Valley (82), but a 4-1 dual-meet record helped them finish third in league.