Preston Thue
Staff Writer
The Mira Costa boys cross country team claimed the Bay League title, Nov 5, at the Palos Verdes course breaking records along the way, while the girls fell short behind Palos Verdes High School.
“The boys were consistent, and their hardwork is paying off,” boys cross country coach Roberto Caulderon said.
At the beginning of the boys race, Costa’s varsity runners packed together behind Redondo runners. The Costa boys were able to push through to the end, and all seven runners finished in the top 11 in the race.
“I thought I had a great race, and hopefully it ties into our post season,” senior Ethan Williams said. “Our abilities are all peaking at the right time, which showed in our placing.”
Three Costa cross country records were broken at the meet on Thursday. Williams broke the Costa senior course record for the Palos Verdes course, coming in at 16.32. Junior Caleb Llorin broke the overall Palos Verdes course record for juniors with a time of 16.50, and sophomore, Cole Lewis broke the record for sophowmores, running the Palos Verdes course with a time of 16.51. Lewis also became the first sophomore ever to run the PV course in under 17 minutes.
“It was great to break a course record after all the effort we have put in,” Williams said.
Junior Melia Chittenden started off the race by following the pace of PV’s top runners. She began passing other runners and got a 18.58, placing second.
“As a team, we all planned to take the first part of the race easy and pass as many people as possible in the last half,” Chittenden said. “One of my goals was to break 19 minutes, so I was really happy with my result.”
The girls’ final score was four points short of earning them the first-place title.
“The race is really competative ,and the fact that we were able to compete so well makes me really excited for CIF,” Chittenden said.”
The boys’ Bay League record is 5-2, and the girls’ is 1-6. Their next meet is tomorrow and is the CIF Preliminaries at the Riverside City Cross Country Course.
“The Bay League finals were a great opportunity for the team to prepare ourselves for CIF,” Chittenden said. “We saw strong performances from a lot of different people, and it was a great way to end the season.”
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