Flacks Runs Away With Cross-Country Victory

Lindsay Flacks of North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake rolled to her third runaway victory of the season in the Division I girls’ race at the Kenny Staub Invitational cross-country meet Saturday at Crescenta Valley Park in Glendale.

Flacks, a senior who was slowed by a groin injury at the end of last year, was timed in 17 minutes 43 seconds over the three-mile course, 29 seconds ahead of Corona sophomore Alma Escobar.

Flacks’ time moved her to fifth on the all-time course list. The performance came a week after she won the Stanford Invitational’s Division IV race by more than a minute.

Senior Olga Aulet-Leon of Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula surged to a lead early in the Division I race but trailed first-place Flacks by three seconds at the mile mark and eventually finished third in 18:41.

Canyon Country Canyon, ranked No. 3 in the Southland by The Times, defeated No. 9 Peninsula, 41-69, to win its second consecutive Division I title in the Staub meet.

Sophomore Jessi Locke placed fourth in 18:41 for Canyon, which had five of the top 12 finishers.

The Cowboys also won their second consecutive Division I boys’ title with a 46-69 victory over Crescenta Valley.

Senior Jace Getskow and sophomore Adam McDonald placed sixth and seventh for No. 6 Canyon with identical times of 16:19.

Junior Jose Melena of Antelope Valley won the Division I race in 15:41 with senior Chris Chavez of Santa Monica second in 15:51 and senior Ben Kessen of Crescenta Valley third in 15:57.

-- John Ortega

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Reed Honrath scored three goals and Rory Kelly had two to lead the Huntington Beach Marina boys’ water polo team to a 9-6 victory over Carlsbad in the championship match of the Villa Park tournament at Villa Park High.

The unseeded Vikings (16-1) upset second-seeded La Jolla The Bishop’s, 9-8, in the quarterfinals Friday, then beat third-seeded Villa Park for the second time in five days, 12-8, in the semifinals earlier Saturday.

Carlsbad (12-1) tied the score, 4-4, early in the second half, but the Vikings answered with three consecutive goals in the final five minutes of the third quarter.

Marina won the Thousand Oaks tournament earlier this season but was defeated by Laguna Beach, 11-10, in the first round of last week’s South Coast tournament. Michael Wanmer, Marina’s first-year coach, said winning the title was a big step forward for the program.

“This is our biggest win, as far as the teams we went against in the tournament,” he said.

-- Dan Arritt

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Pitcher-third baseman Josh Bradbury, the Pacific Coast League player of the year last season at Corona del Mar, has committed to Nevada Las Vegas. Teammate Todd Macklin, another pitcher, has committed to USC.

Chatsworth, the defending City Section champion in baseball, has picked up a promising transfer student in senior left-hander Jacob Norton from Southern Section Division IV runner-up Garden Grove Pacifica.

Norton struck out 29 batters in 23 innings last season. He also batted .348 with 24 hits.

Chris Henry, a 6-foot-9 basketball player at Santa Ana Mater Dei, has committed to Washington State.

-- Eric Sondheimer