Griffins cross country shows well at DHI

From left, Ava Faris, Kaya Guerrero and Sara Becker.

Klaus Quinonez and Kaleb Yemane turned in stellar performances in the boys Senior/Invitational Division 1 event at the Dana Hills Invitational cross country run on Saturday at Dana Hills High.

Quinonez finished the three-mile course in 15 minutes, 13.6 seconds, with Yemane right behind him at 15:13.7. They were 27th and 28th overall in a field of 222 runners from throughout Southern California. Twenty four schools had enough runners to post team scores. The Griffins finished 9th in the team scoring.

Joshua Williams was 62nd overall with a time of 15:43.3 and Nick Van Meter was 79th overall with a time of 15:54.8 for the Griffins. J’von Leong rounded out the team scoring for the Griffins with a time of 16:55.7.

In the girls Division 1 senior/invitational, junior Olivia Velasco led the Griffins with a time of 18:01.0. Velasco was 19th overall to lead the Griffins team that took 4th in team scoring.

Sophomore Ava Faris finished 33rd overall for the Griffins, in a time of 18:36.6. She was followed by sophomore teammate Maria Halfhill, who took 34th and ran the course in 18:37.7. Two more sophomores, Sara Becker ran 47th in a time of 18:50.3, while Kaya Guerrero rounded out the team scoring with a 53rd place finish in 18:54.1.

In the junior boys event, Jonathan Rosenthal placed 11th overall with a time of 16:07.2, to lead the Griffins. Rahul Chavan placed 37th with a time of 16:49.0 and Mitchell Hein finished in 67th place, with a time of 17:27.9. The Griffin sophomore boys had two runner place in the top 50, with Landon Haas taking 32nd and Abraham Wallander taking 46th. In the boys freshman race, the Griffins had five runners finish in the top 100, led by Tyler Austin in 39th place overall in 17:57.3.

Kiersten Oliver led the Griffins in the sophomore girls race with a 16th place finish, while Erin Hedstrom led the Griffin in the freshman race with a 13th place finish. The Los Alamitos freshman girls finished third in team scoring.