With the season nearing its twilight, the runners of Los Alamitos Cross Country are not so much moving through monotony as they are continuing a groove and gathering momentum. Each practice is met with effort, and each starting line shines with as much hype and opportunity as it does morning dew. The athletes’ dedication has been spectacular especially considering the individual rewards often amount to watching a sunrise during a team run before school or finishing a race seconds faster than the week prior.
In the case of the boys’ varsity team, their unified dedication has stemmed from their collective youth. For some perspective, at the Orange County Championship Boys’ Varsity race, the Griffins lined up two juniors, four sophomores, and a freshman. Their team score beat scores of 11 other teams. Optimism for the future has spurred team leader (and sophomore) Brandon Bandley, top juniors Isaac Banez, Andrew Stumpf, and Luke Deal and the rest of the crew to continue to improve.
The varsity girls of Los Alamitos remain in tough competition with Edison and Fountain Valley at the top of Sunset League. At Preview, the Griffins finished third and comfortably within CIF Prelims qualification. The varsity core of juniors Sarah Enyart, Nicole Bliss, Malia Rivers, and Aspynn Carr along with sophomores Bronsyn Ledgard, Delaney Sanacore, and Delaney Falsken have brought focus to every practice as they try to chase down the two teams at the top of the league and later have a successful CIF Prelims in mid-November.
Both of Los Alamitos’ JV teams finished third in the six-team league at Preview as well. One highlight of the meet was seeing junior Kenneth Jones win the JV race by a nine-second margin. Meanwhile, the consistent junior Brian Street was second, for the junior varsity Griffins on that day but first on the team at the Central Park Invitational. The junior varsity girls are led by junior Lauren Fitzgerald and sophomore Victoria , followed by a large group of exciting sophomores that have run faster times as the season has progressed.
Meanwhile, the freshman/sophomore teams have shown some of the strongest performances for Los Al this season. At Sunset League Preview, the frosh/soph boys finished in second. The steady improvements of sophomores Dean Yacoubian, Jared Berryman, Sam Turley, Brad Hartwyk, and Kevin Miller as well as freshmen Harrison Smith, Nick Van Meter, and excellent early-season arrival Kaleb Yemaneberhane give the Griffins a deep team to aim for first place in frosh/soph once finals rolls around. The achievement will be made more difficult with sophomore Jacob Taylor (4th overall in Preview’s frosh/soph race), sophomore Ryan Watts, and freshman Klaus Quinonez (3rd overall in Preview’s frosh/soph race) earning spots in the varsity race at Finals. Amazingly, Klaus finished first on the team (16:47) in his first varsity race at Central Park Invitational, afterward giving heartfelt hugs to his proudest supporter and father, Gus Quinonez.
At the top of the freshman class on the girls’ side, stellar racer Milani Rivers has secured her spot on varsity for League Finals after finishing fifth on the team (19:30) in her first varsity race at Orange County Championships. In previous weeks, she cruised to first place overall in the Sunset League Preview frosh/soph race and led the freshmen to second place as a team at Central Park Invitational. On the other hand, the female sophomore team has been the Griffins’ best all season, culminating in a first place team finish at Central Park Invitational. Naturally, when the freshmen and sophomores combine for frosh/soph races, the results heavily favor Los Alamitos. The frosh/soph girls dominated preview with a one-two-three finish (freshmen Milani Rivers, Amber DeMarco, and Victoria Hansen) as well as seventh and eighth places (sophomores Annie Bliss and Lauren Kussler). Sophomore Sophia Craig did not race at Preview but was second overall in the Central Park Invitational sophomore race. Craig (20:10) and DeMarco (19:51) led the girls’ frosh/soph to 5th place in Orange County and look to continue dominance of Sunset League at Finals.
Over 120 Griffins will race at Central Park for Sunset League Finals on Halloween morning. Community members are encouraged to come out to cheer on the team.
