PREP CROSS-COUNTRY

Mater Dei boys win--Mater Dei, Orange County’s boys’ team champion, narrowly defeated Mission Viejo for the South Coast League title, 55-50. The Monarchs were in command throughout the race with the Diablos making up ground over the last mile.

The Monarchs avenged a third-place finish in the league finals last year by placing four runners among the top nine this time.

Capistrano Valley senior Adalberto Sanchez ran away with the South Coast League title, his third consecutive, in 15 minutes 11 seconds over the three-mile course at Laguna Niguel Regional Park.

Sanchez’s time topped the record of 15:17 by Dan Niednagel of Dana Hills in 1990. He went out strong and was never challenged. His victory he helped his team place third with 67 points.

Sanchez was relaxed through two miles but didn’t get his goal of a sub-15 minute time. “I knew where I had to be, but it was difficult by myself” Sanchez said. “Now I want to be a back-to-back Southern Section champion.”

Mission Viejo senior Andy Morgan was second (15:42), followed closely by Dana Hill’s Juan Almejo (15:50) and Mater Dei’s Brian Mitzel and Matt Wickersham, both of whom finished in 15:52.

San Clemente’s Nancy Dollar, who finished second last year to Dana Hills, freshman Sydney Leonard of Dana Hills, got some revenge. Dollar, a senior, defeated Leonard by 15 seconds, posting a time of 18:26. Leonard finished in 18:41.

Trabuco Hills won the girls’ team title with 36 points followed by Dana Hills (44) and Mater Dei (72).

The top three teams, along with Sanchez and Dollar, will advance to the Southern Section preliminaries.