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NEWS AND NOTES FROM PRESS ROW: Cerritos cross country dominates in first 605 League Cluster Meet of season

 

 

March 25, 2021

By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on Twitter

 

First there was a time trial race on Mar. 13 on the athletic fields of Cerritos High for the cross country runners of the 605 League. But the first cluster meet took place last Saturday, again at Cerritos, and the host school was in a league of its own as its boys and girls teams each picked up team victories.

The other five league teams had a combined 11 girls’ runners as the Lady Dons earned the minimum 15 points with senior Sofia Vasquez and sophomore Sydney Romero picking up the two best times at 19:44 and 21:52 respectively. The fourth and fifth best times were locked down by sophomore Sofia Padilla (22:48) and senior Samantha Chang (22:54) while the other two Cerritos runners were juniors Kailah Usi (25:10) and Tara Wang (25:29), who had the 12th and 13th best times.

Whitney High senior Julianna Lee finished in seventh place at 23:27 while sophomore Layla Lacorte had the 10th best time at 24:28. Sophomore Kayla Hamakawa (25:57) and senior Kritika Pantha (26:31) were the other Whitney runners. Artesia High had a pair of runners-junior Lizabeth Ortega (24:13) and senior Marissa Hernandez (28:31) and John Glenn High senior Kaitlyn Martinez ran 26:47.

The Cerritos boys were one of three schools to field enough runners for official scoring and came away with 30 points, narrowing defeating Oxford Academy, which had 34 points. Whitney picked up 66 points while Artesia, Glenn and Pioneer combined to have eight runners.

Cerritos junior Michael Rafael finished in third place with a time of 16:29 while Whitney junior Lorenzo Rodriguez-Boix was right behind him at 17:09. The next three spots went to Cerritos senior Anrei Giordano (17:24) and juniors Andrew Hwang (17:28) and Zachary Huang (17:37).

The ninth and 10th runners to cross the line were Artesia juniors Jareth Navarro (17:53) and Angel Buenrostro (18:02) before the final two Cerritos runners, junior Kevin Hamakawa (18:02) and Chris Amaro (18:05), finished the race. The top Glenn runner was sophomore Javier Reynoso, who had a time of 19:46 and was the 18th of 26 runners to cross the finish line.

The third and final cluster meet of the season will be on Saturday at Cerritos High. This time, the schools will go in reverse order with Whitney racing at 8:00 a.m. followed by Pioneer about an hour later, then Oxford Academy, Glenn, Cerritos and Artesia.

SOFTBALL

Cerritos went to work early and often in its season opener as the Lady Dons blanked host Valley Christian High 17-0 this past Tuesday afternoon. Cerritos scored 12 times in the top of the first inning with the first five in the batting order all scoring twice. Senior center fielder Lauren Lejano and senior first baseman Samiya Jones each had a pair of hits, scored twice and drove in a pair in the inning while junior third baseman Makayla Sur had two hits, scored twice and drove in three runs in the inning.

In all, the Lady Dons recorded eight of their 14 hits in the first inning and eight starters had at least one hit in the game. Junior Erin Gibbs pitched three innings, allowed two hits, walked one and struck out half a dozen. Those two hits came from senior catcher Quinn Livesay in the bottom of the second inning and junior third baseman Chelsea Azevedo in the third inning.

Cerritos is scheduled to host Norwalk High on Tuesday and Etiwanda High on Thursday while the Lady Defenders, who also lost to Ontario Christian High 6-2 this past Wednesday, is scheduled to host Warren High today and Mira Costa High on Saturday.

In other softball action, Gahr High is scheduled to visit La Mirada High on Tuesday before hosting the Matadores on Thursday. La Mirada has won its first two games of the season, 7-5 in eight innings at South Hills High last Saturday and 12-2 against California High this past Tuesday. The team was scheduled to face Santa Fe High on Mar. 25 and South Torrance High on Saturday. Glenn is scheduled to host Norwalk on Thursday in the season opener for both while Whitney is scheduled to visit Long Beach Cabrillo High Monday before hosting Southlands Christian High on Thursday.

BASEBALL

Gahr, which fell to Santa Margarita High 3-2 last Saturday, is scheduled to face Bishop Amat High on Tuesday and host Ayala High on Thursday while La Mirada has won two straight games over Lakewood High (5-4) and La Serna High (9-2) this past Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. The Matadores are scheduled to play Corona Del Mar High on Saturday, South Hills on Monday and Mission Viejo High on Tuesday.

BOYS SOCCER

Artesia defeated Paramount High 4-3 this past Tuesday to improve to 1-1 and is scheduled to host Buena Park High on Mar. 25, Cerritos on Wednesday and Kennedy High on Thursday.

Cerritos was blasted by North Torrance High 11-0 last Thursday in its season opener and was scheduled to host Firebaugh High on Mar. 25 while Gahr was blanked by Valley Christian 5-0 last Thursday.

Glenn is scheduled to kick off its season at Whitney on Tuesday and before hosting Pioneer on Thursday while La Mirada, which has posted shutouts against Troy High (1-0) and Buena Park High (3-0) was scheduled to visit Sonora High on Mar. 25 and is to host La Serna on Tuesday and Bellflower on Thursday.

Norwalk began its season with a 1-0 loss to Sonora this past Tuesday and is scheduled to host Bell Gardens High on Wednesday while V.C., which edged Mayfair High 4-3 this past Wednesday, is scheduled to host Troy today.

GIRLS SOCCER

Artesia opened its season by blanking Firebaugh 2-0 this past Tuesday and is scheduled to face Buena Park on Mar. 25 before visiting Cerritos on Wednesday and hosting Oxford Academy on Tuesday.

Cerritos was scheduled to host Fullerton High on Mar. 25 while was scheduled to visit Norwalk on Mar. 25.

Glenn is scheduled to host Whitney on Tuesday and travel to Pioneer on Thursday while La Mirada, coming off a scoreless tie at La Serna last Thursday and a 3-0 win at Warren this past Tuesday, was scheduled to travel to La Habra High on Mar. 25 and Sunny Hills High on Tuesday before going to Troy on Thursday.

Norwalk slammed Bell Gardens 12-0 last Friday and is scheduled to host Mayfair on Tuesday while V.C. tied Mayfair 2-2 this past Tuesday and is scheduled to entertain California on Tuesday.