The Malibu High School boys cross country placed third as a team in the League Finals last Friday at Moorpark. With the top two teams qualifying for CIF, it looked like Malibu High was out of luck. But the Sharks soon learned that due to their second-place finishes in the first two league meets, they had qualified for CIF afterall.
When the starting gun sounded at Friday’s competition, the runners exploded onto the grassy field, elbows akimbo, vying for a front of the pack position. Santa Clara’s Robert Garcia quickly took the lead in the first mile, with Malibu’s Cameron Burrell following closely on his back and Carpinteria’s Andrew Culbertson barreling behind. Burrell looked strong and determined as he kept Culbertson behind him every fleet step of the way.
On the third mile, the terrain turned to grassy flats. Burrell was intent on keeping Garcia’s jersey in sight. With an iron will, he was keeping his lead over Culbertson. What neither Burrell or Culbertson expected was that Culbertson’s teammate, freshman Deardorf was rushing at them. Deardorf, who had never finished in the top ten before this race and never run in a League Meet at all, passed first Culbertson and then Burrell.
In the last cross country League Meet of the year, the homestretch made a tight turn onto the track. The front runner raced toward the finish line. It would be Garcia who won the League title.
“Toward the last stretch, I was catching up [to Deardorf],” Burrell said after the race. ” I picked it up. He picked it up, too, to the finish line.”
Deardoff finished second. Just four seconds behind, Burrell placed third and Culbertson got fourth.
Malibu’s Ryan Needle pushed himself and finished fifth, nearly half a minute behind Burrell and 20 seconds after Culbertson. Teammate Nick Burrell (Cameron’s twin brother), who has come in first more than once for the Sharks, earned sixth place. The pack thundered into the finish line with other Malibu runners, including John Ottusch (17th), Gabe Sloggy (21st), Forrest Alsobrook (26th) and Chris Peck (29th).
“That’s great,” said Cameron Burrell regarding the team’s qualification for CIF. “I’m really happy that we made it. We’re going to have to train every day, make sure the alternates train as well. We’ll stick to our basic routine: long run, intervals, hills, the usual.”
This Saturday the Sharks compete at CIF Prelims at Mt. SAC.
Among the junior varsity runners, Sean Needle and Jake Savas had been running competitively at each meet, each time getting faster and faster. At League Finals, both placed well, finishing seventh and ninth, respectively. Other junior varsity runners included Ben Robbins (10th), Dylan Gil-Gomez (11th), Atticus Anderson (12th), Sam Kaplan (15th), Trevern Hatfield (16th), Charles Westcott (17th), Jake Spangle (20th), Taylor Whitfield (21st) and Isaac Nassimi (32nd).