Since mid-July, the Los Alamitos High School Cross Country team has been practicing together, forging bonds, and fidgeting at the metaphorical starting line. On Sept. 5, after briefly fidgeting at the literal starting line, the Griffins raced for the finishing times, individual medals, and team scores they had been working to earn all summer long. A week after their Sept. 5 meet at The Great Cow Run at Cerritos Regional Park, the team donned their “Los Al XC” running singlets for a second time at the Laguna Hills Invitational.
Of course, these were the first two high school three-mile races for Los Al’s group of freshman girls and boys, and they performed like excited but seasoned runners. The top five scorers for the freshman girls in both meets were Milani Rivers, Amber DeMarco, Victoria Hansen, Heather Dollins, and Madison Garcia. Milani Rivers led the female freshman crew in both races. She placed 11th out of the 231 runners in her race at the Great Cow Run while also running the third best Los Alamitos girls’ time of the day with 19:58. Rivers admitted to being a bit intimidated by the numerous hills on the Laguna Hills course, but she still placed 15th out of 141 runners in the freshman girls’ race, thus stringing together two amazing performances. The top five freshman boys for Los Al have been Klaus Quinonez, Joshua Williams, Harrison Smith, Nick Van Meter, and Lachlan Keller. Quinonez has been another revelation for the team, first placing 13th out of 285 in the freshman boys’ race and then 5th out of 189. His times have placed him in the top five Los Alamitos male runners on the team this year. After setting his personal best of 17:07 at the Great Cow Run, he allegedly ate an entire pizza before continuing to cheer on his teammates in the other races.
A significant percentage of returning runners for Los Al improved their times from last year. An excellent sophomore boys’ team highlighted by Dean Yacoubian, Ryan Watts, Michael Tuttle, Jacob Taylor, and Jared Berryman are meeting their goals and exceeding expectations. Meanwhile, sophomore Brandon Bandley has run the top time on the entire Los Alamitos team in both weeks. The sophomore girls have also excelled, earning plaques for their top-3 team finishes at both meets! Leading this class of runners has been Delaney Sanacore, Delaney Falsken, Bronsyn Ledgard, Sophia Craig, Lauren Kussler, Annie Bliss, and Victoria Hyde.
Upperclassman team captains Constantine Banez and Kyle Lira have been leading the boys’ varsity team to improvement as a group in order to jump ahead of league rivals and achieve a top-3 team finish in Sunset League in order to advance to CIF Prelims. Juniors Andrew Stumpf, Isaac Banez, and Luke Deal hope to contribute to the goal as they continue to establish themselves among the top-7 runners on the team. The girls’ varsity, led by team captains Nicole Bliss and Sarah Enyart as well as fellow juniors Malia Rivers and Aspynn Carr, is working hard to repeat as league champions. At the Great Cow Run, the Los Alamitos girls’ varsity team finished ahead of Sunset League rivals Edison, Fountain Valley, and Huntington Beach, but the numbers indicate a tiny degree of separation. League Finals promises to be a thrilling spectacle.
Community supporters and aspiring runners are more than welcome at the remaining races. Go Griffins.