Esperanza Girls Show They Have Strength in Numbers at Meet

Less was more for the Esperanza girls’ cross-country team and the Aztecs proved it Saturday at the Southern Section preliminaries.

An off-season decision by Aztec coaches Rich Medellin and Fritz Rodrigues to compete in fewer regular-season meets paid off as the Aztecs cruised to victory.

Running in race No. 18, the third and final heat of the Division I competition, all seven Aztec runners finished in 20 minutes or faster on the hilly three-mile course at Mt. San Antonio College.

Sophomore Lisa Massoth and junior Kristin Shedd were third and fourth, running 19:10 and 19:22, but the finishes of senior Karen Mitchell (sixth, 19:30), freshman Kristin Chadez (ninth, 19:37) and junior Beth Weidler (10th, 19:38) helped Esperanza to a meet-low 24-point team total.

“We haven’t run as many races invitational-wise this year, because traditionally at this point of the season we’re tired,” Medellin said. “We just said, ‘Hey, let it loose today.’

“We ran great today. The last thing I told them today was to try and stick together if possible.”

Los Alamitos was a distant second with 89 points in the heat with the Aztecs.

The top four teams in each heat advance to the finals, along with the fastest fifth-place team on the basis of team time (an aggregate of the top five individual times). In addition, any individual in the top 10 of a heat not on a qualifying team also advances.

In all, county girls won five races, including all three heats in Division III. Among the Division III winners were El Modena junior Jessica Dahlberg (18:55) in the second race, Newport Harbor sophomore Alicia McFall (18:54, race No. 4) and Buena Park’s Heather Garritson (18:26, No. 6).

El Modena won the heat, and Newport Harbor and Buena Park finished third to advance to Saturday’s section finals at Mt. SAC.

University sophomore Allyson Marquand (17:51) won race No. 8(Division II), with the second-fastest time of the day for girls, the fastest by a county girl.

The Trojans (57 points) finished second to Yucapia (21) and edged qualifying teams Sunny Hills (110) and Mater Dei (123).

Dana Hills, led by senior Sydney Leonard’s 18:22 clocking for second place, won race No. 10 (Division II) with 46 points, ahead of Mission Viejo (74) and Marina (98). All three teams advanced to the finals along with fourth-place Palmdale Highland (134).

In the boys’ competition, county champion Tustin (39) led an area sweep in race No. 13 (Division III), followed by Newport Harbor (76) and Brea Olinda (77).

The Tillers, who had the fastest team time in their division (82:27), were led by sophomore Leo Gordillo, who ran 16:00 for third place.

In the day’s opening race, Sea View League champion Santa Margarita (70 points) edged Yucapia (73) and Orange League winner Anaheim (78) to earn qualifying berths in the Division II boys’ finals.

County champion Mark Gleason won the race in 15:37, but his Mission Viejo team failed to advance in their heat. The Diablos, who scored 154 points, lost to Mater Dei, which finished a non-advancing fifth with 133.

Six of 13 county boys’ teams advanced in Division II, including Santa Ana, which won the third race with 68 points, ahead of fourth-place Orange (109).

Panther senior Nick Russell won the race, running the fastest individual time of the day by an area athlete in 15:35.

Huntington Beach (second, 69 points) and Dana Hills (fourth, 144) also advanced in race No. 5.