Breakers headed for Fresno

The Laguna Beach High boys’ cross-country team is running toward Fresno for the sixth consecutive year.

The Breakers earned a spot in Saturday’s CIF State finals by finishing as runner-up to the CIF Southern Section Division IV title Saturday at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut. Laguna finished with a team time of 1 hour 23 minutes 28 seconds to place second behind division champion Big Bear.

The Bears, who held down the division’s No. 1 ranking throughout the regular season, won the title with a team time of 1:21:14.

Laguna will run one final time Saturday “” for all the State marbles “” at Woodward Park in Fresno.

“One mark of a very strong team is picking up the slack when others aren’t having their best performances,” Breakers Coach Dave Brobeck told his team.

Three Breakers hit course record times at Mt. SAC, including Casey Finnerty, who was Laguna’s top finisher with a time of 16:23 that garnered the senior an overall finish of 13th place. The other Laguna runners to hit course record times were senior Rand Hardy (16:41), who finished in 25th place and junior Andrew Shapero, who also went 16:41 to place right behind Hardy in 26th place.

Finnerty, who also was Laguna’s top finisher (ninth place) at the CIF prelims meet on Nov. 15, shaved 36 seconds off his previous best course time while Hardy knocked off 28 seconds and Shapero nearly a minute (57 seconds).

Sophomore Matt Neev was the second Laguna runner to cross the finish line. His time of 16:30 was good enough for 18th place. Following Hardy and Shapero in the Laguna order was junior Blake Hofmeister, whose time of 17:13 led to a 26th-place finish. Junior Jake Johnson (17:20) placed 59th and junior Tommy Newton-Neal (18:28) was in 102nd place.

Neev, Hofmeister and Newton-Neal did not run in the CIF prelims race on Nov. 15.

Brobeck said the team’s goal Saturday is to reach the podium, which is reserved for the top three teams in the boys’ State final. The team’s motto is “Serenity Now.”

The other teams running against Big Bear and Laguna Saturday in Fresno are Morro Bay, San Juan Hills, L.A. Baptist, La Salle and Harvard-Westlake.

Laguna last won a State championship in 2004.

? Laguna girls

The Breakers ran to a team time of 1:41.32 to finish in ninth place at Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Division IV final at Mt. SAC.

Laguna was only one point away from an eighth-place finish and eight points from placing seventh.

Only the top seven teams in the division advance to Saturday’s State final in Fresno.

Laguna had a team time of 1:48:30 at the CIF Southern Section Division IV prelims race on Nov. 15.

“Our girls ran a great race,” Laguna Coach Steve Lalim said of Saturday’s finals performances. “We dropped nearly seven minutes (6:58) off our team time from prelims.”

Freshman Natasha Strickland was the top Laguna finisher with a time of 19:52, good for 30th place. She ran a 21:56 at the prelims race the previous week.

Her sister, Kativa, a junior, was next at 20:20. Kativa Strickland was followed by junior Parker Yamasaki (20:25), freshman Marisa Merchant (20:25), junior Gerry Artman (20:30), junior McKenna Nokes (20:37) and senior Melissa Lenker (21:58).

La Reina, which entered the CIF event ranked first in the division, went on to claim the title with a team score of 67. Mayfield was second and Oaks Christian third. The other four teams advancing to Saturday’s State meet are Flintridge Sacred Heart, JSerra, Morro Bay and Maranatha.

“The Southern Section Division IV girls is extremely talented and deep with talent and every other team, just like us, ran really well,” Lalim said. “Our team time ranks up there with some of the best girls’ teams in Laguna Beach cross-country history.

“I’m extremely proud of the girls. Even though we didn’t qualify to the State meet, we had a very successful season. Our team chemistry is awesome and our future is bright with six of our top seven runners returning next year. It’s a bummer not running in the State meet but it tells you something when our team is still ranked in the top 10 in the State.”

In the girls’ Division IV State rankings released Nov. 23, Laguna was ranked 10th.