Winning Streak Ends for Nevers in Fresno Meet

Junior Mark Nevers of Oak Park High had not lost in five cross-country races before the Clovis Invitational on Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Girmay Guangul of Santa Clara Santa Clara took the lead after 1 1/2 miles on the 5,000-meter course and went on to defeat Nevers by 11 seconds.

But Oak Park placed four runners in the top 20 to claim the team title in the small-schools division with 72 points.

Nevers clocked 15:57.

Oak Park is ranked second in the state in Division IV.

Junior Kelley Hess of Thousand Oaks and senior teammate Rae Stumbough ran away with the girls’ large-schools race. Hess won in 19:15, followed by Stumbough in 19:19.

Nordhoff finished third with 148 points and Thousand Oaks was ninth with 268 points.

In other cross-country meets:

Fountain Valley Invitational--Kristen Anderson clocked 19:18 to place third and Michala Brook finished eighth in 19:48, helping Westlake to a third-place finish in the Division II girls’ meet on the three-mile course at Huntington Central Park in Huntington Beach.

MEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY

Cal Lutheran Invitational--Cal Lutheran’s Geir Kristensen clocked 27:06.24 on the 8,000-meter course at Cal Lutheran, helping the Kingsmen to a second-place finish behind Caltech.

WOMEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY

Cal Lutheran Invitational--Andi Crane of Cal Lutheran finished fifth in 20:10.34 and the Regals finished second with 69 points.

Redlands swept the first four places on the 5,000-meter course at Cal Lutheran to win the meet with 19 points.

Long Beach State Invitational--Former Nordhoff standout Elaine Canchola clocked a victorious 17:28 on the 5,000-meter course to help UCLA to a 34-57 victory over Stanford.

Former Louisville standout Shaluinn Fullove placed ninth for Stanford in 17:59 and Nancy James was the top finisher for Cal State Northridge with a 15th-place clocking of 18:23.

MEN’S WATER POLO

Valley 8, Cypress 7--Ryan Rittmiller scored four goals for Valley in the ninth-place game of the Citrus tournament at Mt. San Antonio College.

Baxter Cepeda and Eddie Barrera each had two goals for Valley (10-9-1).

Valley defeated Long Beach City, 16-3, earlier.