Crean Lutheran cross country teams notch victories in first on-campus meet

Crean Lutheran junior  Kaela Brenner leads the way on her way to victory Saturday. (Photo courtesy Crean Lutheran High School)

Crean Lutheran High School’s first cross country meet on its own campus turned out to be a big success.

Both the Saints girls and boys varsity teams defeated Calvary Chapel Santa Ana on Saturday. The meets also included Laguna Beach, St. Margaret’s, Calvary Chapel Downey, Pacifica Christian and Laguna Beach.

Under guidelines from the California Department of Public Health and the CIF, cross country is the only sport allowed to compete so far under safety protocols. To help keep the athletes safe, the 3-mile course was held on the Crean Lutheran campus.

“We had a very successful day in kicking off our season. This was our first time ever hosting a meet on our campus,” said Crean Lutheran Coach Robby Cherry. “It was a challenge in some ways to put together a course on our campus, but it was also very fun and I think we did a good job of making a fun, safe and competitive course.

“The course had many turns and some soft grass surfaces which added a challenge to the mostly flat course. The course also ran through most of the campus and even through the parking lot a few times as well.”

In the girls race, Crean Lutheran defeated Calvary Chapel 25-30.

Crean Lutheran junior Kaela Brenner took first in a time of 18:20.8. Freshman Hannah Radmilovich of Calvary Chapel was second in 19:52.3 and Crean Lutheran junior Emily Reed was third in 20:31.0.

“Kaela Brenner ran the third fastest time in school history,” Cherry said.

In the boys race, Crean Lutheran defeated Calvary Chapel 22-39.

Calvary Chapel freshman Matthew Radmilovich took first in a time of 16:12.8. Crean Lutheran freshman Hayden Rivas was second in 16:33.3. Crean Lutheran also took third and fourth place. Junior Ethan Miller was third in 17:12.6 and junior Gavin Burkhart was fourth in 17:27.6.

Rivas ran the fourth fastest time for a Crean Lutheran freshman in boys school history, Cherry said.

“Crean Lutheran’s first runner was the freshman Hayden Rivas, who had a tremendous race,” Cherry said. “Hayden competed the whole way with the top athlete in the race and demonstrated exceptional pacing and determination for such a young athlete.

“The boys ran well and many athletes set personal best times. We have been training very hard as a team since August so we were very prepared and ready to go for this meet. Our team had 15 individual PRs out of 23 athletes who competed.”

The overall results were also merged together. Laguna Beach was first with 29 points, St. Margaret’s were second with 35, Crean Lutheran third with 78, and Calvary Chapel Santa fourth with 94.

Junior Melanie Falkowski of Laguna Beach had the fastest time (18:20.7) and Brenner of Crean Lutheran was second in 18:20.8.

In the overall merged boys results, St. Margaret’s took first with 29 points, Laguna Beach was second with 57 points, Crean Lutheran was third with 66 points, Pacifica Christian fourth with 111 points, Calvary Chapel Santa Ana fifth with 123 and Calvary Chapel Downey sixth with 139.

St. Margaret’s senior Jackson Adelman had the best time in 15:36.1, St. Margaret’s senior Calvin Cappelle was second best in 16:00.9 and Calvary Chapel’s Radmilovich was third best in 16:12.8.

Cherry said he and his athletes were grateful the meet went well.

“We feel very blessed by God to have had the opportunity to compete and to be able to host the meet successfully,” Cherry said.

Crean Lutheran will face Laguna Beach in the next meet on Saturday.

(Send cross country news and story ideas to timburt@ocsportszone.com)