They’ve been knocking at the door, but they haven’t crossed the threshold they’ve been looking for yet. The Los Alamitos High School girls cross country team has qualified for the CIF-SS meet and will join the other top teams at Mt. San Antonio College for the preliminary meet on Saturday.
The Griffins reached CIF last year and even advanced to the finals, before finishing ninth and just out of a qualifying spot in the state finals.
But the Griffins were a young team last year (still are to an extent), so this year they are looking to make an even stronger run at the big prize.
The Griffins’ top three runners at last year’s CIF-SS Finals, Olivia Bettinger, Trista Candiotty and Stevie Holguin all returned this year and helped lead the Griffins to a solid season.
They tied with Huntington Beach in the Sunset Surf League, despite Candiotty not running in the varsity meet. She had been working her way back from an injury, so they ran her in JV to get her some work before CIF.
Candiotty dominated the JV race, but the varsity team ended up tied with Huntington Beach and had to settle for second place on a tie-breaker. (See story)
Head Coach Mark Celestin will take 12 girls to the finals, with seven runners and five alternates and he will ultimately have to decide which seven will run on Saturday.
The Los Alamitos boys team made big strides as well this year coming up just six points short of qualifying as a team for CIF.
Two runners, sophomore Matthew Mayhue and senior Lon Monk, qualified as individuals and will also run on Saturday. Members of the girls team who are scheduled to run are: Stevie Holguin, Olivia Bettinger, Alee Reyburn, Chelsea Estrada, Ruby Flaim, Trista Candiotty, Kaitlyn McQuillen and Caris Honma. Four other alternates will also be available.
“The boys team missed qualifying by only six points, which for a young team was really good,” Celestin said.
The Division 1 groups are scheduled to run at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday.
Mt. SAC has long been the site of CIF-SS finals and provides a tough course with a lot of hill running, including a steep winding climb up a small mountain.
Tickets for the Saturday event can found online at gofan.co/event/1215821?schoolId=CIFSS.
