Oak Park gearing up for CIF meets

Hailey Swartz and Lauren Finkelstein

At the Mt. SAC Invitational meet, the biggest high school cross country meet in the nation in terms of participation, Oak Park ran two of its top 10 boys and two of its top eight girls last Friday.

Coach Kevin Smith said that the Eagles’ focus was more on the Ventura County championships, which take place tomorrow at Lake Casitas, in Ojai, at 2 p.m.

Smith was very pleased with the effort of his team members that did compete last week at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut.

"Our younger teams did well," Smith said. "Our freshmen boys won it."

Leading the victorious Eagles’ frosh team was Daren Stockard (17:55), followed by Sean McCann, Todd Bettisworth, Kyle Martindale, and the team’s fifth scorer in the race, Daniel Jacob.

Lauren Morales won the freshmen girls’ race with a time of 19:39, and Oak Park took second overall as a team. Finishing for the Eagles behind Morales were Kristina Skiba, Laura Pittman, Barbara Rubino, and Kelly Gelpi.

The Oak Park sophomore boys finished third, led by Jonathon Yahalom, Micheal David, Scott Bartlett, Charles Carriere, and Elias Simeroth.

The Eagles sophomore girls, which finished third overall, were led by Kaitlin Parry, who was 11th in the race, Melinda Rodriquez, Genevieve Chambliss, Amy Eisenbach, and Rachel Iker.

In the J.V. boys’ race, Oak Park took fifth place, with the top runner for the Eagles being Jon Sarna.

The varsity boys finished 11th overall with Brian Candy leading the way with a time of 18:49, good for 49th place.

Lauren Finkelstein ran in the varsity girls’ race, finishing 29th with a time of 21:58.

About tomorrow’s county championships, Coach Smith said, "For the varsity boys this is going to be a huge meet." He said he thought the Eagles had a chance to win it all.

The girls were not going to stress the county race as much in order to prepare for the Tri Valley League championships which take place next Wednesday, Nov. 1, at 3 p.m. also at Lake Casitas.

The Oak Park boys varsity, though tied with Fillmore going into those same league finals, were not expected to have trouble earning the Tri Valley League title.

On Sat., Nov. 11, back at Mt. SAC, the CIF preliminaries take place, with the CIF finals also at Mt. SAC a week later, Nov. 18, and the state championship scheduled to take place on Sat. Nov. 25.

–Wayne Harrison