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LONG BEACH -- The Moore League cross-country finals took place Wednesday at Heartwell Park and the end results were full of repeat performances, with one exception.
Long Beach Poly successfully defended its varsity team titles, notching the fifth straight on the boys' side and a second victory for the girls' team. For the third straight season, Millikan junior Jason Parra won the boys' individual title, with his league finals-best time of 14:33.82.
The one change at the top was seeing Poly girls' freshman Avery Peck get out to a lead, keep it and be the first of four Poly runners to cross the finish line. Peck ran a time of 18:24.15. She was just ahead of 2021 Moore League champion and 2021 CIF State Meet individual runner Camille Lindsay, Peck's teammate who ran a very respectable 19:13.50 in what was only her third race of the season (Mt. SAC Invitational and Dos Pueblos Invitational were the others).
Peck, while happy with her performance, was more ecstatic for her fellow runners who stepped up, doing something they'll look to continue heading into their Nov. 11 CIF Southern Section preliminary meet at the Mt. SAC course.
"I'm definitely happy that I won, but I am super proud of my team, especially Camille because she ran only her third race and she's come back from a lot of adversity," Peck said. "Camille did amazing finishing second. Alexa (Bryson) and Evelyn (Hernandez Lujan) being third and fourth is awesome because it is their highest placing of the year and it is super special for all of us to share."
In the girls' team scoring, Poly's top five was reached by the seventh spot with sophomore Brynn Jolly closing it out. Poly had 17 points to win the girls varsity title. Millikan, second place with 61 points, and Long Beach Wilson with 71, each qualified for the CIF-SS prelims as a team.
"Today was a culmination of everything we've been working towards and to see it all come together, having our top seven all back and running together really felt like a league championship," Poly girls head coach Gabrielle Bournes said.
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On the boys' side, Poly edged Millikan, 27-30, to maintain possession of the Moore League team title for another year. Parra did his part to help the Rams' chances of breaking Poly's streak. He outran the entire field, including his closest league rival runner, senior Cameron Rhone of Poly. Rhone was second to Parra, finishing in 15:00.29.
"I knew coming in that this race wouldn't just be handed to me," said Parra, noting Rhone's solid abilities on the course and knowing it is a rivalry. "On some of the turns, I could see him out of the corner of my eye to know where he was. I try not to look back as much as I can and just keep rolling."
Once Parra and Rhone were finished, the team title was up for grabs amongst the top two Moore League teams.
Poly had the next two runners, Lamarr Kirk Jr. (15:28.41, a PR time) and Luke Larson (15:31.39). Millikan's Jack Brown was next in fifth (15:34.41), Poly's Mason Lindsay was sixth in a PR time of 15:46.89. Millikan had the next three runners, Aiden Ransom, Eric Plascencia and Jacob Fujimoto in seventh, eighth and ninth. Noah Addison, Poly's fifth runner to score, was 12th in 16:26.29.
Wilson's top two finishers, Gus Hollister and Kyle Holland, were 10th (16:21.23) and 11th (16:24.34), helping the Bruins finish third as a team with 74 points and qualify for CIF-SS prelims. Lakewood was fourth in the team standings with 114, enough to grab the league's final CIF-SS prelims berth.
"This season we've had to grind it out because we didn't have our No. 1 lineup for the majority of the year, but we always prepare for the league finals," Poly boys coach Cameron Ford said. "Based on what we were able to do today, we know what kind of team we are. Millikan has been amazing all year and it has taken the best of our competition to a higher level. Now we can move on to CIF and we know the kind of team we are."
Despite come up just short of winning the boys varsity team title, Millikan coach Pedro Ramirez is going forward knowing that his team's postseason goal remains intact.
"Our goal is to have the team run with Jason at the State meet," he said. "Our main focus is to have our number two through five running together. Today it worked as much as we had hoped and we know they are capable of doing it. If we continue to do that we should be okay moving forward."
Poly's varsity successes on Wednesday gained a boost, too, on the girls' side with lower-level league titles in its junior varsity and freshman-sophomore races.
Lila Palmer, a senior, won the league's girls' JV race with a personal-best time of 20:54.64. She led a 1-2-3 finish and Poly's top five crossed the finish line seventh and ninth overall to win the team title with 22 points. Millikan was second with 39 and Long Beach Wilson had 66. In the frosh-soph girls' race, Poly freshman Savannah Gutierrez won in a time of 20:38.50, also a personal best.
Millikan kept Poly from sweeping all Moore League team titles, winning boys junior varsity and boys frosh-soph races in dominating fashion. Junior Michael Brief won the race in 16:12.85 and teammate Joaquin Ocampo was second in 16:36.40. Millikan then proceeded to have six more runners -- eight in all -- finish among the top 10. In the frosh-soph race, Millikan went 1-2-3, 5th and 8th, led by Lucas Crockett's winning time of 16:57.13. The Rams had runners in nine of the top 13 spots to overwhelm the competition.
Ryan Blystone is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to MileSplit.
Photos, videos by Ryan Blystone.