20 County Teams Make Cross-Country Finals

Corrected results for the Southern Section cross-country preliminaries were announced Saturday. The results of Friday’s prelims had been invalid because of a computer error.

Official results show that 20 Orange County teams and nine county individuals qualified for the Southern Section finals on Saturday at Mt. SAC.

In the boys’ team division, the 10 county qualifiers are Villa Park, Santa Ana, Dana Hills, San Clemente, Saddleback and Fountain Valley in the 4-A; Woodbridge and Laguna Beach in the 2-A, and Whittier Christian and Santa Margarita in 1-A.

Individuals--those who placed fourth or better in their heat and are not members of qualifying teams--are La Habra’s Mark Gonzales and Tim Mahon in 3-A, and Trabuco Hills’ Mike Cowdrey and Valencia’s Jose Sandoval in 2-A.

San Clemente’s Mike Farrell ran the fastest time of the day for a county runner, 15 minutes 51 seconds. Gonzales and Dana Hills’ Daniel Niednagel were the only other county runners to break 16 minutes (15:58).

In the girls’ team division, the Orange County qualifiers are San Clemente, El Modena, El Toro, Corona del Mar, Capistrano Valley and Tustin in 4-A; La Habra in 3-A; Woodbridge and Orange in 2-A, and Santa Margarita in 1-A. The individuals are Martha Pinto of Katella, Edison’s Shelley Taylor, University’s Tanja Brix and Villa Park’s Susannah Thrasher in 4-A, and Fullerton’s Gisela Lopez in 3-A.

Taylor, who won the third 4-A heat, ran the fastest time for a county girl (18:30). Her time was second to Westlake’s Jeannie Rothman, who won her 4-A heat in 18:19, the girls’ fastest time of the day.