Costa Mesa girls, Santa Ana boys rule at Orange Coast League cross-country finals
In one respect, those assembled at Irvine Regional Park saw what they had expected to see at the Orange Coast League cross-country finals on Tuesday afternoon.
The storied rivalry of Costa Mesa’s Diane Molina and Santa Ana’s Maria Hernandez had one final chapter to be written in it. As they had been the previous season, the two runners found themselves alone at the finish once more.
Into the finishing chute came the two frontrunners, but neither broke free from the other. Instead, they raised their hands together after they crossed the finish line, with Hernandez having crossed slightly ahead of Molina with a winning time of 17 minutes 54.78 seconds.
Both girls viewed the gesture of finishing the race together as an act of good sportsmanship, although they were told by race officials that such an act of attempting to tie would not be allowed in a CIF Southern Section postseason meet.
“For CIF, that’s what they told us,” Hernandez said. “I don’t see nothing bad about that because we still finished. It’s nothing bad. I’ve never heard of that rule, but I know she’s happy. I’m happy.”
Molina said that while the spotlight might have been on the competition, a mutual respect had grown between the two since Santa Ana joined the league last season.
Since Santa Ana competes in Division 1 for CIF and Costa Mesa is in Division 4, Molina recognized that she would be running with Hernandez for the last time. The two decided to create a memory that would last well beyond the results of the race.
“[Maria and I] made a deal that we were going to try to finish together,” Molina said. “I know we’re not teammates, but we’ve been through a lot of races together, and we’ve gotten really close and become really close friends.
The deal coming in today was not to see who was the best, but just to finish it as close friends.”
Molina placed second with a time of 17:55.04. Both Hernandez and Molina made the podium with top-10 finishes at the CIF State meet last year.
A moment later, the team battle began to unfold, with perhaps a bigger surprise taking place with the Costa Mesa girls edging Santa Ana 28-29 for the team league title.
Freshman Kira Anderson (third, 19:12.63), junior Jaqueline Rodriguez (fifth, 19:42.40), senior Vanessa Carrillo (sixth, 19:49.46) and sophomore Daisy Carrillo (12th, 21:04.65) completed the scoring five for the Mustangs. Costa Mesa won its first girls’ league championship under coach Steve Moreno, who’s in his 10th year in charge.
Moreno said that his team bucked a trend by looking at the rankings. Costa Mesa came into the week ranked sixth in Division 4.
“We started getting better and better, and our ranking in CIF started getting better,” Moreno said. “The girls gained more confidence.
“Probably, today was the most nervous that I have seen the girls because they knew what was at stake. The outcome was in our favor. Santa Ana is a great team. They’re a tough team.”
Junior Brandon Palacios won the boys’ individual crown in 16:12.64, leading Santa Ana over Costa Mesa 15-63 to defend its league championship.
“We mostly just decided to stay as a pack,” Palacios said of his team posting a perfect score of 15 points. “We were trying to work on our grouping. That way, we can make it to [CIF] finals, hopefully. Our goal is just to make it past prelims this year.”
Senior John Paul Bottazzi (seventh, 16:54.66), sophomore Edward Rodriguez (eighth, 16:56.86), junior Andy Murray (13th, 17:46.20), junior Raymond Tran-Nguyen (15th, 17:57.07) and senior Blake Bermudez (20th, 18:33.35) formed the scoring quintet for Costa Mesa.
“It makes me proud as a coach to see both teams move on to CIF,” Moreno said of Costa Mesa’s boys also qualifying for the CIF preliminaries, which will be held at the Riverside City Cross-Country Course on Nov. 15-16.
The top eight finishers in a league finals race are eligible to advance to the CIF preliminaries as an individual if their teams do not advance. The Orange Coast League will not have any individuals advance, as Costa Mesa and Santa Ana accounted for the top eight finishers in the boys’ and girls’ races.
Sophomore Angelica Pelayo (11th, 20:57.66) led Estancia on the girls’ side, while sophomore Giovany Ocampo (18th, 18:27.02) paced the Eagles in the boys’ final.
BOYS’ CROSS-COUNTRY
Orange Coast League finals
At Irvine Regional Park
3-mile course
Team Results
1. Santa Ana 15; 2. Costa Mesa 63; 3. Saddleback 80; 4. Orange 112; 5. Calvary Chapel 140; 6. Estancia 147
Individuals
1. Palacios (Santa Ana) 16:12.64; 2. Palma (Santa Ana) 16:24.13; 3. Ramos (Santa Ana) 16:33.85; 4. Del Carmen (Santa Ana) 16:42.85; 5. Ramos (Santa Ana) 16:43.78; 6. Vazquez (Santa Ana) 16:48.32; 7. Bottazzi (Costa Mesa) 16:54.66; 8. Rodriguez (Costa Mesa) 16:56.86; 9. Alvarado (Santa Ana) 16:58.44; 10. Arizmendi (Saddleback) 17:18.45
GIRLS’ CROSS-COUNTRY
Orange Coast League finals
At Irvine Regional Park
3-mile course
Team Results
1. Costa Mesa 28; 2. Santa Ana 29; 3. Saddleback 95; 4. Estancia 117; 5. Orange 128
Individuals
1. Hernandez (Santa Ana) 17:54.78; 2. Molina (Costa Mesa) 17:55.04; 3. Anderson (Costa Mesa) 19:12.63; 4. Garcia (Santa Ana) 19:28.97; 5. Rodriguez (Costa Mesa) 19:42.40; 6. V. Carrillo (Costa Mesa) 19:49.46; 7. Lopez (Santa Ana) 19:53.24; 8. Carmona (Santa Ana) 20:28.18; 9. Alegria (Santa Ana) 20:50.26; 10. Luzan (Santa Ana) 20:54.47
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