By Amy Candiotty
The Los Alamitos High School Cross Country Team ran their third race of the season at The Chaffey HS Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 23. The Griffins raced against 18 teams from the surrounding area. The Griffin freshman, sophomore, and junior girls all came in first place. The boys freshman team came in second place missing out on first by only one point.
The Griffin girls shined! Freshman Caris Homa (20:31) led her team to first place followed by Riley Kuhlendahl (21:18.0), Maddie Heenan (21:18.2) and Bella Castellon (21:18.8) all of whom were only separated by tenths of a second. The sophomore team was led by Chelsea Estrada (18:56) who also set a course record followed by Phoebe Grimshaw (19:53).
The junior girls dominated the race scoring only 16 points when 15 points is considered perfect. The girls won first through fourth and sixth places, dominating by 51 points. Junior Stevie Holguin (18:12) also set a course record for her division, followed by Olivia Bettinger (18:37), Alejandra Reyburn (18:47), Trista Candiotty (19:29), and Thalia Griffith (19:44). Senior Kaitlyn McQuillen (18:44) led her division followed by Ruby Flaim (18:50).
The Los Alamitos boys had great times. Freshman AC Wellsand (17:13), led his team to second place followed by Jonathan Vazquez (17:42) and Samuel Pareti (17:43). Sophomores Matthew Mayhue (16:39), Charlie Nelson (17:22), and Travis Regnier (17:30) helped their division place fourth.
The juniors Garret Bantle (17:10), Jaxon Nguyen (17:52), and Daniel Li (18:11) secured sixth place for their team. Senior Lon Monk (16:08) raced an impressive time along with his teammates Paul Dunbar (17:36) and Gavin Ordinario (17:47).
Head Coach Mark Celestin was excited about the two course records set and emphasized how great both the boy’s and girl’s teams did in achieving lots of personal bests. The Griffins continue to improve as they head into the second half of the season.
Junior Stevie Holguin was asked how it felt to set a course record?
“It was so much fun to put my training to the test and run a tough race,” Holguin said.
The top senior boy, Lon Monk set a PR at this race and said, “setting a PR means your training has paid off, and I’m happy to have beat my Woodbridge time from last week.”
The Griffins next race is in two weeks at the 41st Annual Asics Southern Cal Invitational in Oceanside.
