Led by sophomore Anna Payton’s 3rd-place individual finish, the Culver City High School Girls varsity cross-country team took 3rd (77 points) in the Ocean League Finals Nov. 3 at Rancho Park. El Segundo placed 1st (23 points) and Santa Monica High was 2nd (48 points).
The Lady Centaur harriers will now move on to the CIF Division II, CIF Cross Country Prelims Saturday Prelims, in Riverside. They race in the first heat at approximately 8:37 a.m.
Payton and Eden Winslow, CC’s top runners all season, finished among the top dozen in a field of 37 runners.
Payton pushed the front of the pack the entire race, just missing second by 3.5 seconds. It was the highest finish by a CCHS varsity girl in more than 10 years. She clocked 19:29.01 on the 3-mile course. Tupelo Sullivan of S.M. won the race in 18:48.36, followed by her teammate Anya Sturm in 19:26.20.
Winslow, a junior, earned a hard 12th-place finish in 20:27:92. Rounding out the CCHS team were Laura Cruz (19th) in 22:39:49; Ella Roche-Willis (22nd) 23:12.65; Alexandra Palacios (25th) 24:20:05; Romi Takara (26th) 24:31.86; and Kathy Hermosillo (27th) 24:36:50.
BOYS VARSITY
The Boys varsity team placed 4th with 94 points, behind Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and El Segundo.
Mason Acevedo, a junior, led CCHS with his 12th-place finish in 17:05.76. He was followed by Max Flynn and Brandon Cummings, who came in at 19th (17:41.60) and 20th (17:41.60). Culver City’s fourth to sixth boys were Arman Rostamian, 23rd in 17:55.62; Aidan Kim, 24th in 18:00.10; and Max Jordan in 25th, 18:01.50. Cummings, Rostamian and Kim are all sophomore. Jordan is a junior.
Matthew Takara placed 31st in 19:31:30.
BOYS JV
The top six Centaur boys in the Junior Varsity team were Desmond Dickson in 17:39.55 for 5th; Evan Pearson in 12th, 18:05.03; James Dimeo in 13th at 18:19.27; Van Barth, 14th in 18:37.98; Siddharth Gupta in 18th at 18:45.67; and Alberto Castro, 19th in 18:52.20.
BOYS FRESHMAN
The freshman team was led by Sam Schuette, 2nd in 18:21.84; Ryan Martinez, 12th in 20:03.85; Aaron Chung, 16th in 20:24:51; Eli Horn, 20th in 21:20.04; Cooper Komatsu, 23rd in 21:27.09; Paulo Gamez, 26th in 21:49.12; Jackson Lang in 29th at 22:10.69; Robert Ridenour in 32nd, 22:48.71; Antonio Rocha, 40th in 23:30.98; and Gino Haase, 43rd in 25:38.30.
GIRLS JV
Soph Emma Bishop captured 12th place in 23:11.51 and led her Centaur teammates in the JV race. Others were 19. Evelyn Grijalva (23:52.41); 22. Melany Arriola, 23. Andrea Olivera, 24:54.23; 24. Sidonie Horn, 25:24.16; 27. Raphaella del Rosa, 29. Jocelyn Gomez, 25:57.92; 30. Ryann McDowell, 26:02.02; 39. Alexa Martin, 28:02.18; 42. Carolyn Dodenhoff,
GIRLS FRESHMAN
Frosh Linsey Kojima took first in 21:06.94 as the girls team placed second overall behind Santa Monica. Coming in third was Eboni Harrison in 21:47.12, followed by June Metzler in 11th at 23:00.73.
Others: 15. Maya Glorioso, 24:33.58; 21. Sofia Stuart, 26:06.48; 23. Savannah House, 26:15.46.; placing in 25th to 28th were Danielle Winslow, 28:08.49; Emi Yanagita, 29:12.75; Nicole Muir, 30:31.02; and Farzana Faiz, 31:24.47.