Cross Country Varsity Boys and Girls are West Valley League Champions

Both the Granada Hills varsity girls’ and boys’ cross country teams crossed the finish line with the title of “West Valley League Champions” on November 6 at the West Valley League Finals.  Coming in first as a team in their respective races, the girls gain their third consecutive league title, while the boys earn their first since 2008.

Senior Cristian Cucuta became the West Valley League Champion for the boys with a season personal best of 15:33 on the 3-mile Pierce course.  Junior Natalie Realegeno set a personal best with a time of 18:33, earning her the title of West Valley League Champion for the girls.

As a team, the varsity boys placed first with 33 points to El Camino Real Charter High School’s second place of 40 points.  With a combined average time of 16:13 for the seven varsity runners, the boys have been working hard all season to make their mark at the L.A. City Championships in two weeks.

The varsity girls also won first as a team with a total of 41 points, just four points ahead of Taft High School who came in second with 45 points.  The girls managed to return strong after losing to Taft High School at a dual meet earlier in the season as well as losing some runners to injuries.

“The boys won League Championships today, which is great,” said coach Robert Palafox. “They’re on their way to win city.  As far as the girls, they were able to overcome losing earlier in the season to Taft.  I’m very proud of the girls’ accomplishments as far as being able to bounce back from their loss.”

The junior varsity girls placed second overall as team, with senior Julia Fisher placing third, while the junior varsity boys placed third as a team with senior Jeremy Argueta coming in sixth.  Granada also had runners competing in the freshmen and sophomore races and the newly added Novice race, which gave runners who didn’t qualify for any team the opportunity to compete.

The varsity teams’ next meet will be the L.A. City Prelims at Pierce Community College next week where they will race in various heats to qualify for the L.A. City Championships.  The top 14 teams will continue on to compete in the city meet where they will fight for their chance to make it to the coveted state meet held up north in Clovis.

—Tessa Weinberg

League Finals Results

Varsity Boys

• Cristian Cucuta – 15:33
• André Shahinian – 16:12
• Benjamin Tiber – 16:17
• Jose Gonzalez – 16:22
• Jacob Seemann – 16:43
• Alfredo Hernandez – 17:25
• Isaac Adeleke – 18:02

Varsity Girls

• Natalie Realegeno – 18:33
• Tessa Weinberg – 19:02
• Jazmine Macias – 20:30
• Megan Satterfield – 20:42
• Anastasia Vela – 21:34
• Denise Rojas – 21:49
• Tori Childers – 23:09

Visit http://theplaidpress.com/category/sports/ to read more stories about Granada’s sports teams.