Cross-Country: Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach represent Orange Coast League well

Few things are goal-driven like sports.

In that case, mission accomplished for Steve Moreno and his Costa Mesa High cross country program.

Moreno witnessed the Mustangs pull off a feat last Friday that hadn’t been done in his seven-year stint as the school’s distance running coach.

At the CIF Southern Section Preliminaries on the Riverside City Cross Country Course, Costa Mesa’s boys’ and girls’ teams followed through with the necessary outcomes to qualify for the CIF-SS Finals.

“The goal was to get to Finals with both teams, and obviously, we’ve accomplished that goal,” Moreno said. “That was very satisfying to see both the boys and the girls reach it.”

As a matter of fact, it was the first time that the Mustangs’ girls have reached the championship stage with Moreno at the helm. It took everything that they could muster.

The girls took the last of the allotted 12 qualifying spots in their Division 4 heat, edging out South El Monte, 324-329. The fourth and fifth runners, Emily Olvera and Louisse Castillo, crossed the finish line together (83rd and 84th), securing the Mustangs’ place in the CIF-SS Finals.

“We did catch some runners there at the end, and that made the difference at the end of the day,” Moreno said. “It was very exciting for [the girls] and for me. I crunched the numbers, and I knew that we were going to be right at the edge there.”

Costa Mesa’s boys tied with Yucca Valley for the 10th-fastest team time (1:24:14) in Division 4.

It will be tough sledding for the Mustangs to qualify for the state meet, as only the top seven teams will advance out of each race on Saturday. One person who is desperate to get over the hump is Costa Mesa ace Elliot Hachac.

The senior missed making the state meet as an individual by one spot last year, but he showed he is ready to put that behind him by finishing fourth (15:53) in the faster of the two heats in Division 4.

Results in the preliminary round can be deceptive because some teams that have the luxury of a qualifying cushion opt to hold a runner or two out of the race.

Laguna Beach’s boys’ team was among those that felt comfortable enough to do so, pulling top runner Luc La Montagne from Friday’s race. The junior was resting an Achilles injury, but he was back at practice on Monday and is expected to be able to compete in the CIF-SS Finals.

The other members of the Breakers’ pack – Zach Falkowski, Sebastian Fisher, Ayrton Svenson, and William Kramer all ran within 13 seconds of each other.

Coming off her win in the Orange Coast League Finals, senior Ana Kelly continued to pace Laguna Beach’s girls.

“She has just been a consistently hard worker ever since her freshman year,” Breakers Coach Steve Lalim said. “She’s just gotten a little bit better and a little more confident.”

“I think she’s stepped up to the plate as a No. 1 runner. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with that. Ana continues to work hard, and I think she’s just embraced it.”

This is the 19th consecutive year that the Laguna Beach boys’ team has made the CIF-SS Finals and the 14th straight year for the Breakers’ girls.

Barons A Year Older, A Year Wiser

This season has already been a success for the Fountain Valley girls’ cross country team, which has extended its season beyond what it was able to do a year ago.

The core of last year’s team was its freshman class. Fountain Valley won the Sunset League preview in 2015, but it burnt out early and finished fourth in the league finals.

“They’ve taken it a step further,” Barons Coach Jerry Palazzo said. “They came back and redeemed themselves. They conquered the league at finals as well as the preview. They went to CIF Prelims and qualified for Finals.”

This year, there was a greater understanding within the group that they had to choose their target races judiciously. Palazzo had his team pace themselves in the CIF-SS Prelims in order to gear up for one more peak performance.

“They’re not seasoned enough to kill more than a few races in a season,” Palazzo said of his young team. “We targeted the two league meets and O.C. Champs. This one on Saturday will be number four.”

Sophomores Ashley Faller, Sara Feitz, and Isabella Guerra continued to run well as the Barons placed sixth at Prelims.

The Barons may opt to make a change to their lineup on Saturday. Palazzo is considering junior Camille Pham as an alternate for the CIF-SS Finals because she ran her personal best on the Riverside course last year.