Carlie Dorostkar defends Dana Hills title in 15:57.5 record


As a junior, Canyon Crest Academy's Carlie Dorostkar won the Dana Hills Invitational in 16:49.3 (pictured). As a senior, she crushed the course record with a massive year-over-year time drop in defending her title.

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Canyon Crest Academy senior Carlie Dorostkar ran the Dana Hills Invitational 3-mile course in

15 minutes, 57.5 seconds to win the Girls Invitational title for the second year in a row while obliterating the previous course record.

Her time is the fastest 3-mile clocking in the U.S. as of marks posted Saturday morning, surpassing the 16:00.70 run by Katelynne Hart (Glenbard West/IL) at last Saturday's Richard Spring Invitational (Detweiller Park in Peoria, Illinois) and the 16:04.80 posted by Clovis Buchanan's Corie Smith in winning a week ago at Woodbridge (held at SilverLakes Sports Complex in Norco). 

Dorostkar, the defending San Diego Section Division 1 champion who placed fifth at the CIF-State Championships last fall, dropped 51.8 seconds from her winning time on the same course in 2018 when she ran her previous 3-mile PR of 16:49.3.

Running under cloudy skies along Orange County's southern coast early Saturday morning, Dorostkar knocked nearly 18 seconds off the previous course record of 16:15.1 by Capo Valley's Haley Herberg (2017). The second fastest previously was Kristin Fahy's 16:16.6, also in 2017.

Well back of Dorostkar, Hana Catsimanes (San Clemente/SS) placed second in 16:44.9 and Lavanya Pandey (Sage Creek/SD) was third in 16:54.8. Great Oak, running its 'B' team, was a 21-point winner over Dorostkar's CCA. Aubrie Nex (17:09.4) placed sixth overall (fourth among scoring runners) to lead Great Oak followed by Joelle Upshur (17:47.2) in 14th (10th in scoring).

Crushing courses and leaving the field well behind is becoming a habit for Dorostkar so far in 2019.

A week ago, in her 2019 debut, she ran the third-fastest time in the history of the 2.75-mile Morley Field layout in winning the 40th Mt. Carmel Invitational in 14:44.6, 1:19 ahead of the runner-up. 

In the race just before the Girls Invitational at Dana Hills, Carrick Denker went 14:33.2 to win the Boys Invitational and lead Dana Hills to the team title.

Denker's victory is the sixth in a row for a Dana Hills boy in the invitational race held on and around the school campus. He follows in the fast running shoes of former Dolphin boys champions Simon Fuller in 2018 (14:27.9), Jack Landgraf in 2017 (14:17.9), 2016 (14:33.8), and 2015 (14:28), and Mason Coppi in 2014 (14:33.9).

Denker, who was ninth in this race a year ago in 14:52.50, dropped five seconds off his previous 3-mile PR set in 2017.

Capo Valley's Sean Robertson placed second in 14:38.2, dropping his 3-mile PR by .6 from his runner-up finish three weeks ago at Rosemead.

Dana Hills won the team battle by 20 points over a Great Oak squad running its 'B' team.  GO went 3-4 with Leandro Candray (14:41.73) and Austin Montez (14:49.0). The difference was that Dana Hills had its 2-4 runners cross before Great Oak's No. 3 as Jai Dawson placed seventh overall (fifth among scorers) in 14:56.1, Brandon Pizano was 16th (11th in scoring) in 15:01.6, and Ryan Broadhead was 23rd (18th in scoring) in 15:09.9.

In placing second, Great Oak's 'B' squad scored 75 points, 81 more than third place Beckman.