Orange County Close-Up

Making a Move: The Dana Point Dana Hills girls’ team appears to be making its typical late-season rush. The Dolphins finished sixth, 126 points out of first place, in the Division I race of the Orange County championships at Irvine Regional Park in Orange on Oct. 18. But they have moved to fifth in The Times’ Southland rankings after a runaway victory in the South Coast League finals Thursday. Senior Monika Rothenburger’s return from injury has bolstered Dana Hills’ depth the last two meets, but most of her teammates have also improved their performances in the last three weeks.

Big Surprise: Freshman Jacqueline Turner of Orange Lutheran stunned Cypress senior Stephanie Torres to win the Empire League title last Wednesday. Turner finished 12th in the Division I race of the Orange County championships, 44 seconds behind second-place Torres. But the first-year runner beat Torres by 11 seconds in the league final. “I would say I was mildly surprised, but not shocked,” Orange Lutheran Coach Jonathan Zimmerman said of Turner’s victory. “She, Kelly [Rendon] and Kari [Andrew] all have shown a great work ethic, so any of them could have done it. But it happened to be Jacqueline.”Meet of the Week: Southern Section preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College, Saturday, 8 a.m. Afternoon session starts at 1:30 p.m.