Fountain Valley girls, Newport Harbor’s Garcia repeat as Sunset League champions

The Sunset League Finals kicked off cross-country’s postseason on Saturday, with the meet containing all the thrills and scares one might expect from an elimination round.

There were a duo of repeat champions and a pair of shocking team performances – one for better, one for worse.

Fountain Valley High’s girls’ team repeated as team league champions, as the young but experienced Barons bested Los Alamitos 28-52 on Saturday morning at Central Park in Huntington Beach.

The Barons put four runners in the top seven. Junior Ashley Faller (18:14) took second behind Griffins senior Delaney Sanacore, who won the race in 18:03.

Julia Svarstrom (3^rd, 18:21), Sara Feitz (5^th, 18:27), Maddie Jahshan (7^th, 18:43), and Isabella Guerra (11^th, 18:57) completed the set of scoring runners for Fountain Valley.

“They have a fighting spirit,” said Jerry Palazzo, who co-coaches the Barons along with Brian Bivens. “When a Sara Feitz comes back disappointed, you have someone that finished [fifth] in a league finals, and they’re disappointed.

“That’s the kind of fight that you need in a competitive runner. Disappointment at something that most people would envy to do once in their life.”

Maintaining their patented pack-running style has been impressive, especially as Faller has shown some ability to separate herself from the rest of the group. She was the ninth-place finisher in the girls’ sweepstakes race at the Orange County Championships.

“I know that I’m at the top edge of our five,” Faller said. “It’s definitely easier for me. I feel like our No. 4 and No. 5 work so hard to stay with our pack. I really appreciate that.”

Marina’s girls took the final guaranteed CIF berth, placing third with 90 points. Freshman Marikay Scwab paced the Vikings, finishing eighth in 18:47.

Edison’s Avery Dorff extended her season, qualifying for the CIF Southern Section Preliminaries as an individual by placing sixth in 18:33.

Still on top after last year’s breakout campaign is Newport Harbor junior Alexis Garcia, who supplanted his former teammate Ben Wilson as the meet record-holder. Garcia ran 15:12-flat, besting Wilson’s 2015 mark by nine-tenths of a second.

It was a rebound performance for the Sailors junior after a disappointing showing at the Orange County Championships. Garcia had finished as the runner-up in the boys’ sweepstakes race at the county meet as a sophomore, but he dropped to seventh this year.

“After O.C. Champs, I was feeling upset because I knew I could run better, and I just didn’t do it,” Garcia said. “Today, I was ready. I was hoping to defend the title again, but things happen, and we’ve got to keep working hard.”

Garcia was referring to the team title the Sailors were trying to defend. Instead, there were some pained expressions on the faces of Newport Harbor’s boys’ team, which barely scraped by to qualify for the CIF Southern Section Division 2 Preliminaries.

“We expected to win,” said Sailors junior Michael Davey, who finished 14^th in 16:22. “We didn’t have second on our minds. We wanted to win, but that didn’t happen.”

The top three teams from a six-team league such as the Sunset League advance to the CIF Prelims. Newport Harbor took third, just ahead of Fountain Valley at a margin of 87-92.

On the flip side, Marina was pleasantly surprised to find that both its boys’ and girls’ teams qualified for CIF for the first time since 2013. The Vikings’ boys placed second behind Los Alamitos, with the Griffins taking the title 33-80.

“I was out there about 200 meters from the finish,” Marina coach Dave Sanford recalled of how he found out the results. “I was with the Edison coach, and he had the [FinishedResults] app.

“‘He goes, ‘You got second,’ and I go, ‘What? No way.’”

“We figured that we were going to be third or fourth, one way or the other,” Sanford continued. “There was really no chance for first or second. We didn’t really have a good race from our No. 1 [Luke Sutherland] or our No. 5 [Mathew Morales]. They both had bad days.

“Our No. 2 [Chris Pavloff], No. 3 [Daniel McKenzie], and No. 4 [Conner Crockett] really stepped up.”

The breakdown of the team standings allowed three individuals to reach CIF with at-large spots from the boys’ race. Fountain Valley’s Esteban Prado (3^rd, 15:40), Edison’s Cody Groom (5^th, 15:46), and Huntington Beach’s Lars Mitchel (6^th, 15:48) all advanced by placing in the top six as members of non-qualifying teams.

BOYS’ CROSS-COUNTRY

Sunset League Finals

At Central Park, Huntington Beach

3-mile course

Q – denotes CIF-SS Prelims at-large qualifier

Team Results

1. Los Alamitos 33; 2. Marina 80; 3. Newport Harbor 87; 4. Fountain Valley 92; 5. Edison 118; 6. Huntington Beach 126

Individuals

1. Garcia (Newport Harbor) 15:12.0; 2. Yemane (Los Alamitos) 15:39.0; 3. Prado (Fountain Valley) 15:40.9Q; 4. Quinonez (Los Alamitos) 15:45.0; 5. Groom (Edison) 15:46.2Q; 6. L. Mitchel (Huntington Beach) 15:48.4Q; 7. Sutherland (Marina) 16:02.0; 8. Pelonis (Los Alamitos) 16:04.1; 9. Berryman (Los Alamitos) 16:05.1; 10. Yacoubian (Los Alamitos) 16:06.2

GIRLS’ CROSS-COUNTRY

Sunset League Finals

At Central Park, Huntington Beach

3-mile course

Q – denotes CIF-SS Prelims at-large qualifier

Team Results

1. Fountain Valley 28; 2. Los Alamitos 52; 3. Marina 90; 4. Edison 95; 5. Newport Harbor 99; 6. Huntington Beach 139

Individuals

1. Sanacore (Los Alamitos) 18:03.3; 2. Faller (Los Alamitos) 18:14.1; 3. Svartstrom (Fountain Valley) 18:21.6; 4. Ledgard (Los Alamitos) 18:23.5; 5. Feitz (Fountain Valley) 18:27.9; 6. Dorff (Edison) 18:33.7Q; 7. Jahshan (Fountain Valley) 18:43.2; 8. Scwab (Marina) 18:47.0; 9. Velasco (Los Alamitos) 18:50.4; 10. Glassen (Newport Harbor) 18:50.7

Andrew.Turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner