Malibu High Cross-Country Conditioned for Success

Runners only think of two things—the sound of the starter's pistol and the finish line. When you hear one, you run until you cross the other. Those two things are on the minds of the boys and girls cross-country teams, which recently began their season by participating in the 22nd annual Seaside Cross-Country Invitational in Ventura and the 31st running of the Woodbridge Invitational in Costa Mesa.

Participants from throughout the state ran a three-mile course at both events. Seaside began with girls competing, separated by grade. The meet finished with the boys running off into the early twilight. Woodbridge is a two-day event, and actually runs late into the night. It is one of the early premier meets, featuring 217 schools from five states, including 67 in the White Division with Malibu.

Both teams placed third last year in the Frontier League, with four girls and three boys receiving All-League recognition. The squads lost five athletes to graduation, including 2010 Most Valuable Runner Zack Hamilton and top female runner Sara Mohr. They led the boys and girls teams in qualifying for CIF Division IV prelims at Mt. San Antonio College.

This year's squads began running Aug. 1 at , and before competing in the first meet, each runner put in a required three weeks of conditioning. Three new meets have been added to the 2011 schedule, including the race on Saturday at Brentwood High.

The boys team will run tightly packed, led by senior Harrison Barton, sophomore All-League runner Erik Rosenberg (who had Malibu's fastest time at Woodbridge) and junior Scott Wesson (the team's top finisher at Seaside). Other runners looking to "score" for the Sharks are juniors James Gordon, John Marot, Brandon Petulla and junior varsity track MVP Andrew Yadzani.

New runners showing great potential in their first races were sophomores Dyer Pettijohn, Aiden Pascucci and Linus Gordon and freshman Alex Saltzman.

The girls team is made up entirely of underclassmen. Leading the squad are sophomore All-League runner Deisy Villasenor, junior Ellie O'Neill and freshman Caroline Pietrzyk, who finished 55th in the freshman race at Seaside and was the team's top finisher at Woodbridge.

Adding to this strong base of runners are multi-sport athletes Emma London (sophomore) and junior Kate Klevit. Other new runners include junior Alena Kaye and freshmen Hillary Sturgeon, Jena Weinberger and Nicole Harper (a top-100 competitor in the freshman race at Seaside and a top-50 finisher at Woodbridge).

Dino Quintanilla is the head coach of the Malibu High girls and boys cross-country teams.