Oilers streak to a cross-country title

Huntington Beach boys win county cross-country championship; Kennedy second.The Huntington Beach High boys’ cross-country team ran to the Division III title Saturday at the Orange County Championships at Irvine Regional Park in Orange.

The Oilers finished with 66 points to win the team title. Kennedy of La Palma placed second with 70 points.

Sophomore Trevor Carroll, Huntington’s No. 1 runner, was the highest-placing Oiler. Carroll finished in fifth place with a time of 16:33 over the three-mile course. Oilers coach Rick Glenn said it was the first time a Huntington Beach squad has won the county title in more than 10 years.

“These guys are really working hard and have been since July 11, when the summer camp started,” Glenn said.

The Huntington Beach boys’ cross-country team is composed of Carroll, senior captain Ted Tracy, sophomore Chad Smith, freshman Kevin Kells, senior captain Adam Hubner, freshman Kamal Singh and freshman Ben Rothacker.

This weekend, the Oilers will run in the Division II sophomore race at the Mount SAC Invitational in Walnut.

Also at the Orange County Championships, the Huntington girls’ team placed fifth in the Division III team standings.

The Oilers -- composed of juniors Veronica Franco and Laura Giannone, freshmen Chelsea Coates and Emily McDole, senior Whitney Meares and sophomores Alex Distler and Sijia Hayden -- finished with 165 points in a division won by Laguna Hills. The girls’ program, Glenn said, is on the upswing.

“Our girls are very young and talented,” said Glenn, who spent four years as an assistant coach at Los Alamitos before becoming head coach at Huntington. “The program as a whole has grown from 21 runners two years ago to close to 50 this year.”

In the girls’ Division I team standings, Edison finished in third place with 97 points, behind winner Corona del Mar and Sunset League rival Fountain Valley.

In the boys’ Division I team standings, Edison finished with 180 points and placed sixth overall. Jayson Hayes finished in ninth place with a time of 16:21.

Girls’ Volleyball

Edison downed Marina, 28-30, 25-17, 25-17, 25-13, and Huntington took care of Esperanza, 25-18, 25-21, 18-25, 25-22, in Sunset League play.

In girls’ tennis, Huntington Beach and Esperanza played to a 9-9 tie, but the Oilers were awarded the victory on games won, 78-76.

Jennifer Heumann swept at No. 2 singles for the Oilers, earning 6-0, 6-4, 6-0 wins. Huntington’s top doubles team of Christina Le and Diana Le also swept, winning 7-5, 6-4, 6-2.

CIF-Southern Section polls

Edison teams held No. 1 rankings in two of the six fall sports polls.

Holding onto the top spots in the polls were the Chargers football and girls’ cross-country teams.

Edison is No. 1 in the Division I football poll and No. 1 in the girls’ Division II poll.

In other rankings, Edison is No. 3 in the boys’ cross-country Division II poll.

In girls’ tennis, Edison tied La Canada for the No. 10 spot in Division II.

In girls’ volleyball, Huntington Beach comes in at No. 5 and Edison is No. 6 in the Division II-AA poll.

In boys’ water polo, Marina is ranked eighth and Huntington Beach just missed a top 10 ranking in Division II.

In the Division I football poll, Edison is one of three Sunset League teams ranked in the top 10, joining No. 3 Los Alamitos and No. 6 Esperanza.

The Sunset and Serra leagues each have three teams ranked in the top 10, tops for any league in the division.