Russell and Carey sprint to titles, MB boys and Templeton girls win LPL meet

Posted: Oct 10, 2012 8:54 PM by Andrew Masuda
Updated: Oct 10, 2012 10:33 PM

Russell, Carey win Los Padres League cross country meets

The Templeton High girls and Morro Bay boys cross country teams won the Los Padres League All-School Midseason Meet held at Nipomo High on Wednesday. Hundreds of runners completed the 3.1 mile multi-surface course around campus.

Templeton sophomore Veronica Russell won the girl's race with a time of 19:08. She distanced herself down the stretch from Nipomo's Kyra Meko, who finished second in 19:27.

"It feels awesome, I mean I haven't won one before so this is definitely a first. It feels really exciting," said Russell moments after crossing the line first.

It marked the first LPL meet victory for Russell, who also broke her previous personal-best time by 13 seconds.

Cabrillo junior Autumn Hersey came in third with a time of 19:47, while Templeton's Dana Alpert came in fourth in 19:53 and Cabrillo's McKell Davis came in fifth at 19:58. A total of 49 girls completed the course.

The Eagles placed three runners in the top 10 as Ann Taylor finished tenth in 20:36. Templeton won with a total of 49 points, while Morro Bay, the defending league champions, finished second with 70 points. The Pirates' top runner was Allie Sulaitis, who finished 8th overall. The Nipomo girls came in third place.

After a second place finish at last season's midseason and league final meets, Santa Ynez High senior Jacob Carey won the meet with a blazing time of 16:17.

"It feels great. I've been running a lot, all through the summer, all through track and everything, it's been a lot of miles. So it finally paid off here," said Carey.

Morro Bay runners finished second and third as senior Billy Vedrin was clocked in 16:27 and junior Austin Lay finished in 16:31. Nipomo High senior Alex Hascall came in fourth place at 16:44 and Lompoc's Luis DeLaPalma finished fifth in 16:50. Cabrillo freshman Cameron Hernandez finished 6th in 16:51. Santa Ynez High junior Roberto Bazan came in seventh in 16:57, followed by Morro Bay's Andrew Stafford and Daniel Van Beurden.

With four runners in the top 9, the Morro Bay boys won with a total of 34 points. Cabrillo finished in second place with 61 and defending league champion Santa Ynez finished in third.

The Pac 7 League midseason meet is on Thursday at the Fairbanks Course near Cuesta College.