The Los Alamitos High cross country team opened its season at the 3-mile Cow Run in Cerritos on Saturday, Sept. 6. The varsity girls ran an impressive race against 21 teams and a total of almost 200 finishers.
The Los Alamitos High cross country team opened its season at the 3-mile Cow Run in Cerritos on Saturday, Sept. 6. The varsity girls ran an impressive race against 21 teams and a total of almost 200 finishers.
“Our ‘Fab Five’ placed sixth overall and the five teams that finished ahead of us, are ranked in the top 10 in their division’s in CIF,” said coach Jeff Tribole. “We also beat teams in our league so we are now being looked at as a [potential] CIF finalist team.”
The Los Al girls squad took off at the sound of the gun and were all together thru the first mile (5:55). As the race progressed, they held their positions placing, 29th (Katie Izzo 18:25), 32nd (Ashlynn Almassy 18:30), 36th (Nicole Bliss 18:42), 47th (Sarah Enyart 19:06) and 49th (Ashlye Gardea 19:13).
“We had a very good pack and just need to keep our strength and get a little quicker. It is still very early in the season however, this was a big first step for us to show the program is re loaded and ready to go to CIF again,” said Coach Tribole.
The Sophmore division was a close race as Hodge from Saugus ran 19:13 to win. However, the three top Los Al runners did an outstanding job staying close to the leaders. “We still need two more varsity runners, and our super sophs, Malia Rivers, Aspynn Carr, and Lauren Fitzgerald are knocking on the door. These three girls ran an outstanding race today. Malia placed 11th (20:29), Aspynn placed 14th (20:32), and Lauren Fitzgerald who ran her first ever cross country race, placed 30th (21:48) out of 153 girls,” said Coach Tribole. “When combined with our freshmen at league finals, I am sure we will be close to the top in our league at the frosh/soph level.”
The Freshmen Girls came out of nowhere, or so it seems to those on the outside, to take 3rd place overall in the team division. Bronsyn Ledgard (20:34/14th place), DeDelaney Sanacore (20:54/20th place), Lauren Kussler (21:42/32nd place), Annie Bliss (34th place/21:45), Delany Falsken (50th/22:19), Reilly McMahan (22:23/53rd place), and Victoria Hyde (22:32/58th place) showed great depth against 17 schools and 196 individuals.
“I am very pleased with the efforts these young women showed today,” said Coach Tribole. “Look for a few of these girls to be running on the varsity level sooner rather than later.”
On the boys side, Coaches Howard and Berryman couldn't have been happier with their results.
“With our effort today, I think we have a punchers chance to make it to CIF as a team,” said Coach Howard.
Thomas Heib ran 15:19 and placed 10th overall in his first race of the season.
“Thomas ran smart and well within himself,” said Howard. “Our goal is to get the team to be as good as they can be by the end of the year and the kids are just now understanding what it is going to take and begin to believe in themselves.”
Constantine Banez, Adam Connolly, Jonathan Javier, Joshua Girauda, Mathew Watters, Brandon Hartwick, and Kyle Fatone look to be the varstiy squad for now, but sophmores Andrew Stumpf, Isaac Banez, Luke Deal, Jordan Sickler, and freshmen Samuel Turley, Bradley Hartwik,, and Brandon Bandley might have something to say by mid season. “These guys are going to improve each week and could surprise some of the varsity runners very soon,” said Coach Berryman.
“With our sophmores placing 5th out of 22 teams, the varsity placing 18th out of 31 teams, and the freshmen placing 6th out of 26 teams, it shows we are a bit young, but, we are competitive on every level,” said Howard.
Los Alamitos races this week at the Laguna Hills invitational and, that will be followed by the Woodbridge Invitational, on the Sept. 20.
“By far, this is the best we have ever looked on all levels at this time of year, and we are very excited to see how the season plays out,” said Howard.
