November 3, 2021
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on Twitter
The story of last Saturday morning’s 605 League cross country championships at Cerritos High may have been on the final league race of Whitney High senior Lorenzo Rodriguez-Boix, but it was rinse and repeat for the Cerritos girls team. For the third straight fall season since the inception of the league, the Lady Dons captured the league championship.
And, for the first time, the Cerritos boys took home first place, gathering 28 points and having five runners finish within the top 10. Pioneer High had won the first two league championships with Cerritos coming in third place in 2018 and second place in 2019.
Oxford Academy had 46 points and despite Rodriguez-Boix coming in first overall with a time of 15:20, Whitney took the third spot with 58 points. Rodriguez-Boix finished in 10th place as a freshman at the league finals with a time of 17:48 before climbing to the top spot in 2019 with a time of 17:33.
Following Rodriguez-Boix last Saturday were a trio of Cerritos seniors-Michael Rafael (16:26), Bryce Hojo (16:33) and Andrew Hwang (16:39). The next four spots came from Oxford Academy before Cerritos seniors Rythwik Salhotra (17:06) and Gary Zong (17:19) rounded out the top 10. After that came Whitney juniors Agam Makkar (17:30) and Colin Choi (17:37) and John Glenn High junior Daniel Altimirano (17:42) and Glenn senior Andrew Guerra (17:44). Glenn would finish in fourth place with 96 points while Artesia High picked up 138 points. The top Artesia harrier was senior Fernando Gonzalez (19:09).
The Cerritos girls nearly made it a clean sweep in position placing, grabbing five of the top eight spots to finish with 19 points. Whitney, which finished in second place in 2018 and third in 2019, claimed second place again with 63 points while Oxford Academy took third with 63 points.
Cerritos sophomore Tatianna Chavez finished in first place with a time of 18:41 followed by junior Sofia Padilla (20:14) and senior Tara Wang (20:39). Fifth place was held down by Cerritos senior Melanie Sagun (21:17) while junior Sydney Romero finished in eighth place at 21:56. Whitney junior Dalia Luckhardt finished in seventh place (21:34), Glenn junior Melanie Hernandez in ninth place (22:04) and Cerritos sophomore Robin Chong in 10th place (22:05) to round out the top 10. The lone Artesia runner was junior Fatima Chrishty, who had a time of 23:50 and finished in 20th place.
GIRLS TENNIS
Cerritos shutout Duarte High 18-0 this past Tuesday in a Division 4 wild card match. The next day, the fifth ranked Lady Dons, who finished in a tie for second place in the 605 League, had no problems with Rim of the World on the road, posting a 15-3 victory. Cerritos (13-4) will host Magnolia High today in a second round match. Also in the division, Gahr High, which finished in third place in the San Gabriel Valley League, fell to fourth ranked Laguna Blanca High 15-3 in a wild card match, ending its season at 10-6.
Norwalk High which came in second place in the Suburban League, tied Covina High 9-9 but advanced on games won, 74-69, this past Wednesday in a Division 5 first round match to improve to 12-6 overall. The Lady Lancers host Century High today in a second round match while 605 League champion Whitney got past Millikan High 11-7 this past Wednesday in a Division 3 first round match. The Lady Wildcats (15-2) will entertain Ventura High today in a second round match.
BOYS WATER POLO
Only two area teams advanced to the playoffs with Whitney falling to Santa Fe High 10-6 this past Tuesday in a Division 6 first round event. The Wildcats, who finished in second place in the 605 League, conclude their season at 8-9 but goalie Anthony Tam was voted as the league’s Most Valuable Player. Making the first team from Whitney were captains Connor Fan, Mateen Saliminejad and Ethan Woodley. Andy Wang was selected to the Honorable Mention team.
Cerritos, the champions of the 605 League with an overall mark of 3-8 and seeded third, drew a first round bye and hosted Crespi High on Nov. 4 in a Division 4 second round tilt.
