The first rain of the season hit last Saturday but that didn’t put a damper on the Los Alamitos cross country teams to win at the Sunset league cross country championships. With six team championships contested, the Los Alamitos High School cross-country teams came away with three team titles.
During the summer, the girls varsity team had set lofty goals to capture the Sunset League title and advance to CIF. Saturday, under tough conditions of rain, wind, and a very muddy course, the Lady Griffins raced to the league championships for the first time in six years and advanced to the CIF cross country prelims.
“There was no doubt that these young ladies were not going to allow any other team to win. They are too tough,” said Coach Jeff Tribole. “This group, The Magnificent Seven, is one of the most focused, competitive and determined teams I have coached.”
Edison High had clearly set out to compete for the team title, but once the gun went off, the Los Al Girls team surged to the front pack and never looked back. Katy Izzo, (4th place), Nicole Bliss (6th), Ashlynn Almassy (10th), Sarah Enyart (11th), Ashley G. (13th) scored a seasons best of 42 points to beat Edison by 19 points. Malia Rivers (19th) and Aspynn Carr (20th) defeated every teams 5th runner to help widen the gap in scoring and securing a total team victory.
Co-Captain Ashley Gardea stated, “All season, I tried to keep my girls focused while keeping our sport fun. If it wasn’t for each and every member of this team, we would not be where we are now, League Champions! We are a family who encourage and push one another to achieve our absolute best.”
The Frosh/Soph girls continued the tempo set by varsity by upsetting Fountain Valley to win the league championship as well. In what had to be the most exciting finish of the day, Bronsyn Ledgard came from 50 meters behind over the last 300 yards to edge out Buhman of FV for first place.
“Bronsyn’s ran an amazing race and earned that individual victory.” said Tribole. “Bronsyn also knew that this is a team sport and to win the team league championship, everyone had to run the race of their lives so she quickly turned around and encouraged her team to go for the win.
And just like Bronsyn, they did.
Delaney Sanacore (4th), Annie Bliss (7th), Delaney Falsken (9th), Madison Wilson (11th), Lauren Fitzgerald (12th) and Reily Mcmahan (14th) ran as a team to edge out Fountain Valley by 6 points. “This was a total team victory because we all ran as best we could today,” said Delany Sanacore. While Reily M. said it is because “we are such a swag team, the girls make you want to run hard to win”. Assistant Coach Jamie Addamson was thrilled with the team effort. “This reminds me of how cross country should be run, as a team and I am so happy for them and to be part of this group.”
The girls varsity and Thomas Heib will race at the CIF prelims on Saturday Nov. 15 at Mt. San Antonio College.
Heib places second overall and advances to CIF
Facing some of the fastest runners and teams in California, Los Al Junior sensation, Thomas Heib, ran what Coach Howard said was “the smartest and best race of his cross country career” to take second place overall and advance to CIF for the first time as a cross country runner.
“Cross Country is hard,” said Heib, “But today, I felt great and ran the race plan we had been working on for the last few weeks.” Howard stated, “Making it to CIF as an individual is very hard to do, but if you race smart and believe in what you are doing, anything is possible.”
Thomas, one of the states leading 800 meter runners last year, found it hard to not lead, but by doing so, saved his energy for his strong move with just under a mile to go. “The pack started to break up a bit and I knew I had it in me to go with the leaders. I have raced Cooper Kossick many times and when he didn’t go with me, I knew I could be in the top two finishers,” continued Heib.
With the excitement of the girls varsity wining the league championship, the girls frosh/soph winning the championship, and Thomas Heib taking second overall, Coaches Berryman and Howard kept the momentum going by pushing the Frosh/Soph boys to upset Fountain Valley and take the team title home for the Griffins. Brandon Bandley (3rd), Luke Deal (6th), Isaac Banez (7), Andrew Stumpf (8th), ran an incredible pack race to lead the Griffin to an amazing 17 upset point victory.
“Since the summer, we have been working on running as a team, running together and today it all came together. There were only two other runners between our first and 6th runners. The kids ran a perfect team race.” said Coach Berryman. “Coach Howard made a great call by putting a couple of his faster varsity frosh/soph runners on the frosh/soph team today and that was a huge factor in the team winning.”
Coach Howard stated that, “We are not only looking at this season, but we are working to build for the future. I had to make a tough coaching decision by putting some of our faster runners in the frosh/soph race, but the kids are now understanding that they are starting a winning cross country tradition at Los Al”
