La Mirada High School

CIF Southern Section Division II Update
Congratulations to all the teams who ran in the
Division II Finals

Girls Results

Boys Results

Congratulations to St. Josephs HS
on their 6th place finish at State!

CIF-SS Prelims Summary

The boys and girls varsity squads ran their finest races of the season in their CIF-SS Division II preliminary heats at Mt. SAC. Despite some significant PR’s and a considerable lowering of the team time record for the Lady Mats, they ended the season one place shy of a CIF-SS Finals berth.

In Race #5, the girls’ race, GRETCHEN WITOWICH and AMBER MORRISON went out in front and were followed closely by a pack with VANESSA THOMAS, AMANDA STEPHENS, AUDREY SERRATA and CRYSTAL HARE. Gretchen, who finished the grueling course in 20:21, was able to maintain her position and eventually finished 24^th overall. Amanda (20:31), in typical Amanda style, revealed her leadership skills by pulling Amber (20:32) and Vanessa (20:35) along with her as she steadily moved up throughout the race. La Mirada’s final scorer was Crystal Hare, who completed the course in 20:41. This was 20 seconds faster than she ran at Suburban League Finals—a new PR for Crystal! Audrey Serrata (20:55) and CHRISTINA BIRD (21:24) were 6^th and 7^th for La Mirada. For Audrey, Gretchen, Amber, Amanda, Vanessa and Crystal, this was their best performance on the Mt. SAC course. The girls’ team time of 102:43 was a full minute faster than their time at league finals and only 13 seconds over their goal time for the day. It represents the fastest team time in La Mirada High School history.

The gap of 20 seconds between the 1^st and 5^th runner kept the Matadores in contention throughout the race. Unfortunately, despite their valiant effort, the Lady Mats were the 5^th place team in their heat, one place shy of qualifying for CIF-SS Finals.

The close finish was a tough way to end a season marked by hard work, extraordinary improvement and lots of fun. For the five seniors who pushed so hard to earn a trip to this years sectional finals, it was a major let-down. However, each runner can say that she went all-out and left everything on the course. To put the season in perspective, this year’s team time was an incredible 5 minutes, 3 seconds faster than last year’s team time (107:46). Well done!

In Race #11, the first appearance at CIF-SS prelims for La Mirada since 1997 and the final race for seniors JASON CABALITAN and NEIL FLAIZ, the La Mirada boys experienced competition at a different level this week. The boys peaked last week, at Suburban League Finals, their best race of the season. This week DAG TESFAYE (17:22.90), was able to run a repeat of his league finals performance, followed closely by freshman NATHANIEL MOORE (17:25.70). JARED BIRD, another freshman, was the 3^rd scorer from La Mirada, earning a new PR of 18:07. ALEX FOSTER (18:10.00), Neil (18:41.50), CALVIN GUERRERO (18:48.10) and Jason (20:44.30) finished out the scoring for the Matadores. With four freshmen in the top 9, the Matadores are in position to make a major move next season.