Girls head back to Fresno for state meet

They didn’t need to talk about it.

They just made it happen Saturday at the CIF Southern Section Division IV cross-country championships.

After missing the CIF state meet last year, the goal of the Laguna Beach High girls’ team was to make it back. And the mission was accomplished after the Breakers finished sixth in Division IV at Mt. San Antonio College.

The top seven teams in each division moved on to state, this Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.

“It’s such a relief,” said senior Parker Yamasaki. “It was kind of unsaid, but basically the whole goal of the season ended up being to make it [back] to state.”

They did it as a team. Senior McKenna Nokes was Laguna Beach’s top individual finisher, in 15th in 19 minutes, 5 seconds. She was followed by sophomore Natasha Strickland (18th, 19:18), Yamasaki (46th, 20:13), sophomore Marisa Merchant (51st, 20:22), senior Gerry Artman (52nd, 20:22), junior Beverly Ronses (69th, 20:53) and senior Kativa Strickland (70th, 21:02).

Nokes’ time was 1:30 better than at last year’s Division IV finals, while Natasha Strickland improved by 40 seconds. Coach Steve Lalim said the team time of 1:39:20 was believed to be the second-fastest Laguna Beach girls’ time ever, trailing only the 1:39:04 the Breakers ran in 2004.

This, with Kativa Strickland banged up throughout the year; this was her first race since an Orange Coast League cluster meet earlier in the season. She rolled her ankle at the first meet of the year and has also been battling a hip injury.

“It felt different because I hadn’t really raced much,” Strickland said of coming back at CIF finals. “It was nice to run with the team when we finally advanced back to state We redeemed ourselves from last year.”

Last year, the Breakers were ninth in Division IV. Ronses offered a bit different take on how it feels to go back to Fresno.

“It feels delicious,” she said.

The competition will be even tougher at the state meet, but with Kativa Strickland with a race under her belt, Lalim said a top-three finish might not be out of the question.

“The ultimate goal is to make the podium,” he said. “If we run really well we can do it.”

The best the Laguna girls have ever finished at the state meet was fourth, in 2007.