The JSerra girls cross country team showed off its depth and Woodbridge junior Aiden Antonio flashed some speed at the 44th Woodbridge Classic cross country meet on Saturday night at Irvine’s Great Park.
Other county athletes and teams proved they deserve to be competing against the best runners and teams in California and beyond.
More than 500 teams competed in the two-day meet with 52 races contested.
The premier events were saved for last – the rated girls and boys races followed by Bob Day’s Girls Sweepstakes race and the Doug Speck’s Boys Sweepstakes race.
The JSerra girls, a perennial powerhouse, fielded two teams of runners, one in in the rated race and the elite squad in the sweepstakes race.
Sophomore Kaia Streadbeck finished 16th in the sweepstakes race, leading the Lions to first-place team finish with 193 points.
The El Toro girls finished fifth with 383 points.
In the rated race, JSerra was first as a team after the first mile, before dropping four spots to finish fifth.
JSerra has fielded two girls squads in past Woodbridge Classics, but this was the first time the Lions fielded teams in the two top races.
“At practice, when they look left and they look right at the on the practice line, it is an elite race every day,” JSerra coach Chase Frazier said. “So instead of waiting until competition comes to you, we have an elite race every day on our own campus.”
Irvine’s Summer Wilson went out fast in the girls sweepstakes race and was in a first-place tie at the 1-mile mark with La Jolla’s Chiara Dailey, the second fastest runner in the state.
Wilson, the defending champion in the Orange County Championships and third-place finisher in the CIF SS Division II State championships, dropped back to eighth after the second mile.
But Wilson closed with a fast final mile, finishing fourth in 15 minutes, 54.1 seconds.
Other county runners in the girls rated race were Emma Alba of Beckman and Syndey Rubio of Huntington Beach, who were running second and third place, respectively, after two miles.
Alba went on to finish third in season-best time of 17 minutes, seven seconds.
Rubio, who entered the race ranked No. 5 in the county, finished in fifth in 17 minutes, 12.5 seconds.
On the boys side, Woodbridge’s Antonio finished fifth in the sweepstakes race in a county-best time of 14 minutes, 6.3 seconds.
Antonio was up with Herriman’s Jackson Spencer and Eli Jarvis, who finished first and third, respectively, on the elite Mustangs team that won the team sweepstakes title for the fourth consecutive year, setting a meet record.
Woodbridge and San Clemente finished ninth and 11th, respectively, in the team competition.
Sebastion Bello of Trabuco Hills finished eighth in the boys rated race in 14 minutes, 35.7-seconds, leading the Mustangs to a third-place finish as a team.