Laguna in good shape so far

The Laguna Beach High girls’ golf team raised its season record to 8-2 Tuesday by defeating host Sage Hill, 253-270, at Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course (par 36) in Irvine. Christianne Kinder had the lowest score (45) for Laguna but medalist honors went to Sage Hill’s Ashley Chung who shot 44.

The win came a day after the Breakers fell, 196-244 to Aliso Niguel at Aliso Creek Golf Course (par 31) in Laguna Beach. Junior Laura Kawashiri sot a season-low 47 for the Breakers. Kinder and Taylor Weiss also shot 47. The Wolverines’ Joo Seo and Colleen Young shared medalist honors, each at 37.

In previous Golden West League action, Laguna was a 230-281 winner over Westminster at David L. Baker Golf Course (par 31) in Fountain Valley. Weiss was match medalist with a 37 score for nine holes. The impressive feat was a career best for Weiss. Kinder also had a strong day posting a 44 and Coach Val Quigley said it was the team’s best performance of the year.

Weiss was coming off another solid match where she also grabbed medalist honors with a 45 in a 269-299 league win over host Loara at Dad Miller Golf Course (par 35) in Anaheim. She had six “one-puts” and a total of just 14 putts for the nine holes.

“Our girls definitely are improving,” Quigley said of her team’s performances to date, as the Breakers have reached the halfway point of their league season. “Their scores are dropping and they’re going to need to drop a little more if we want to keep up with Estancia.”

Next week, the Breakers have league matches Tuesday against Ocean View at Meadowlark Golf Course in Huntington Beach and Wednesday against league-leading and undefeated Estancia at Bella Collina Golf Course in San Clemente.

Estancia handed Laguna its first league loss on Sept. 14.

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Cross-Country

Natasha Strickland topped her previous time at the Stanford Invitational Saturday, with her time of 20 minutes 18 seconds being four seconds faster than her performance last year in Palo Alto. Other top times for the Laguna girls running the event were turned in by Grace Clark (21:31), Carly Savage (21:50), Beverly Ronses (22:25) and Sophie Radach (22:55). Laguna girls’ coach Steve Lalim said that the team’s No .2 runner, Marlee Grosher, became ill right before the race and didn’t compete, No. 3 runner Marisa Merchant was out nursing an injury but was going to make her season debut Thursday at the Orange Coast League Cluster, and Taylor Capobianco and Audrey Rodriguez also didn’t run at Stanford.

“We had a great weekend at Stanford,” Lalim said. “We are continuing to train through these early races with our goal of running fresh at season’s end.”

For the Laguna boys, Matt Neev won his division with a time of 15:24 at the Stanford 5K. Neev has won his division race in each of the three invitationals — Laguna Hills and Mt. Carmel were the other two — the Breakers have run. Next in order for the Breakers were Jeff White (16:43), Mitch Kimball (17:48), Ryan Jones (18:14), Tim Williams (18:25), Aaron Swartz (18:25) and Kevin Tovar (18:27).

The Laguna boys’ also competed at the Dana Hills Invitational Saturday. Times for Laguna runners included: Tyler Nichols (16:35.4); Veda Rebollar (17:27.7); William Robinson (17:37.4); Stone Riff (18:34.4); Mike Santana (18:37.0); Nathan Sweet (18:45.2); Casey Koprowski (18:47.7); Bendan Skinfill (18:58.0); Spencer Donavan (19:14.2); Avery Crowl (19:24.0); Ian Ring (19:21.3); Loic Pierre Corbiere (19:50.2); James Karas (19:55.7); Vincent Lasislao (20:01.5); James Cockrell (20:11.7); William Richardson (20:45.9); Andrew Koumas (21:05.7); Jordan Glenn (22:00.1); Kaleb Bowman (22:10.4); Vann Seebass (22:24.3); Tony Davia (23:18.6); John Chruch (23:25.4); Joey Gallo (24:27.7); Lucas Conner (24:52.6), and Vickram Kahlon (26:44.3).

The Breakers participated in Thursday’s Orange Coast League Cluster at Centennial Park and next compete Oct. 9 at the Clovis Invitational.

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Girls’ Tennis

The Breakers also fell, 16-2, to host University Sept. 23. Taylor Nederlander (6-3, 7-5, 5-7) picked up both Laguna points at No. 1 singles.

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Surfing

The Laguna Beach surf team launches its season Tuesday with a 6:15 a.m. meet against Newport Harbor at 56th St. in Newport Beach. All season contests for the Breakers will be at 6:15 a.m. each Tuesday through Nov. 16.

Surf schedule

Tuesday: vs. Newport Beach (6:15 a.m., 56th Street)

Oct. 12: vs. San Clemente (6:15 a.m., T-Street)

Oct. 19: vs. Dana Hills (6:15 a.m., Salt Creek)

Oct. 26: vs. Newport Harbor (6:15 a.m., Salt Creek)

Nov. 2: vs. San Clemente (6:15 a.m., Salt Creek)

Nov. 9: vs. Dana Hills (6:15 a.m., Salt Creek)

Nov. 16: League individual finals (TBA)