Laguna running machine
Since the cross-country season began in September, the Laguna Beach High boys’ and girls’ teams have been eyeing a particular date that was still two months down the road: the CIF Southern Section Cross-Country Championships divisional preliminaries.
That meet is the first step in what all teams hope is a three-step finish to the 2013 season. The prelims are a stepping stone to the impending CIF Southern Section finals meet. That finals meet, is where teams find out if they reach the season’s finish line in Fresno, the CIF State Championships, at the end of the month.
The divisional prelims are Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut. Both Laguna teams are competing in Division 4.
“We’re excited to get out there and compete,” said Laguna girls’ coach Steve Lalim, whose team is ranked No. 1 in Division 4. “We’ve been preparing all season for this. It’s been a great season so far. It’s going to be a fun ride.”
Boys’ Coach Scott Wittkop agrees.
“The most important thing this late in the season, is to be healthy and fresh and I think that we are both,” he said.
Both Laguna teams head into Saturday’s prelims having won Orange Coast League championships Oct. 30 in their last performances of the regular season. The Laguna girls have won the league title two-straight years, and in six of the last seven years.
At the OCL Championships, junior Natalie Kimball (18 minutes, 19.32 seconds) won the varsity girls’ race and paced six Breakers who finished in the top 10. Second place was taken by teammate and junior Brenna Merchant (18:23.29). Freshman Kirsten Landseidel (18:36.07) was fourth, junior Janie Crawford (18:38.57) fifth, Pearl Shoemaker (19:19.24) ninth, and sophomore Taylor Alvarez (19:22.16) took the 10th spot.
“Our team is so deep and the girls all work really well together and work very hard,” Lalim said. “Natalie [Kimball] has been progressing well throughout the year and she was ready to break out a great race.
“This whole season, our No. 1 runner has varied. This [OCL] race, it was Natalie. They all ran great, [and] Natalie came out the winner.”
The girls’ team has ascended to the No. 1-ranking in Division 4, having done so without running its top seven runners together at a single invite.
Lalim said his top seven will run at CIF finals Nov. 23.
“The girls have really run well all season,” he said. “Our focus throughout has been working hard and staying healthy. So far, so good.”
Saturday’s prelims features three heats, and the top five teams from each heat, plus the top overall sixth-place team from the three heats, advance to the Nov. 23 CIF Finals. Individuals who place among the top eight places and are not members of qualifying teams, also advance to the finals, Lalim said.
The top seven teams from the CIF Southern Section finals meet, move on to compete Nov. 30 at the CIF State Championships in Fresno.
Laguna will run in the first of three Division 4 heats which starts at 9:26 a.m. The heat includes Big Bear, Cantwell/Sacred Heart, El Segundo, Immaculate Heart, Marymount, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, Nuview Bridge, San Marino, Valley Christian, Whitney, Workman, and Xavier Prep.
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•The Laguna boys’ team ran its top seven runners once this year, at the Oct. 30 OCL Championships, and the Breakers captured the varsity team title.
In the boys’ varsity race, six Breakers finished in the top 10.
Senior Veda Rebollar took first place and the title with a run of 15:18.22. Junior Cameron Zuziak, who’s had an impressive year, was third (15:27.44). Senior Casiano Koprowski placed fourth (15:33.07), sophomores Drake Butler (16:02.94) and Mason Pitz (16:10.46) took the seventh and eighth spots, and junior Grant Barton (16:23.24) finished ninth.
“Veda [Rebollar] has always been a very talented runner,” Coach Scott Wittkop said. “It was great to see him run to his potential.”
The Breakers last year finished eighth in the state in Division 4. They headed into the 2013 season with another talented unit.
Wittkop said the strength of its team has been its “hard work.”
“The turning point for our season was our leadership retreat in July,” he said. “That is where we defined what success means and they have worked hard every day to obtain that success. We took a pledge not to look and or talk about rankings. Our goal is to focus on what we can control.”
The Laguna boys’ program won a CIF Southern Section title in 2009, and won CIF State titles in 2009, 2004, and 1989.
The Breakers will run in Heat 1 of Division 4 at 10:57 a.m. Saturday. That heat includes Bassett, Bishop Montgomery, California Academy Math and Science, Don Bosco, Harvard-Westlake, Heritage Christian, JSerra, Nordhoff, Oxford Academy, Salesian, San Marino, Santa Ynez, Twentynine Palms, University Prep, Valley Christian, and Verbum Dei.
“I know our boys can run with any team in our division,” Wittkop said.