Malibu High varsity senior and boys’ team captain Cameron Burrell won big at the Viewpoint Cross Country Invitational, a small meet held last Thursday at Malibu Creek State Park. Burrell ran the trails without his competition in sight, finishing 21 seconds before the second runner, Christian Fuentes of Chaminade Hight School. Nick Burrell, the winner’s twin brother, placed third.
“We trade off meets,” Nick Burrell said jokingly. “I came in [for Malibu] before him last time. This time he did.”
Chris Peck finished seventh. With fast varsity runners Ryan Needle and John Ottusch sidelined by injury and sickness, stepping in for the varsity team were Gabe Sloggy (14th), Forrest Alsobrook (17th), junior Charles Westcott (19th) and senior Dylan Gil-Gomez (23rd). Thirty runners competed in the race. Westcott shaved two minutes off his personal best time The Sharks placed second as a team out of six competitors.
Malibu’s girls team continued its competitive performance, despite captain Becki Ottusch not running due to illness, and varsity runners Katie Rollins and Claudine Book sidelined by injuries. Sophomore Gianna Fote ran with Chaminade’s Joy Samuels for most of the race, both leading roughly 15 seconds ahead of the pack. On the last grueling uphill, Samuels picked up the pace and stayed ahead of Fote to win by 33 seconds. She captured second place.
Building on her robust debut in last week’s meet, freshman Danielle Bush earned 11th place. Also running for varsity was senior Caitlin Sherry, who came in 10 seconds behind Bush at 12th. Varsity runner Nallely Ruiz ran through shin splints to capture 14th, Jessica Kaplan earned 15th, Emily Woodworth 18th, and newcomer freshman Nina Geibel finished 20th out of 28 runners. Also running for the Sharks were Sarah Dahlinger and Isabelle Radoyce. Mirroring the boys’ team performance, the Sharks earned #2 as a team out of 6 teams.
The junior varsity boys performed strongly, with Jake Savas getting fifth, Atticus Anderson seventh, Ben Robbins 15th, Sam Kaplan 18th and Jake Spangle at 25th. As a team, Malibu’s JV team placed second out of six teams.
The Sharks travel to Villanova High School in Ojai this week for their second league meet, where they compete against Carpinteria, Bishop Garcia Diego, Grace Brethren and Villanova on the Road to CIF.