Sitting down on some ledges along the finish line, cheering on the boys team, the Trinity Classical Academy girls cross-country team sat awaiting the final results for the Heritage League Finals held at American Jewish University on Wednesday.
Trinity swept both finals as the girls took first place, beating out Faith Baptist by just one point with a score of 40 points while the boys team ran away with the title, finishing 40 points ahead of second-place Palmdale Aerospace Academy with 65 points.
Kelli Butler paced the girls team, finishing in first place in the Heritage League with a time of 22 minutes and 24 seconds.
“It feels so amazing,” Butler said. “Just everything about the team. I love how everyone is. I love how we all push each other and that showed today because I was having a difficult race but we all just pushed through it and I finished somehow first again so I’m really excited about that.”
With the first-place finish, Butler repeats as the Heritage League girls champion.
Fourteen seconds behind Butler in third place was Eva Lintereur with a time of 22:38 seconds.
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“Today I was really tired,” Lintereur said. “The back of the course is a nice downhill so you are able to catch your breath, but it’s still hard. All these races, if you go out fast and try to keep it up, they all prove to be hard.”
Catie Robertson also finished among the top 10 girls runners with a time 23:38 seconds good for sixth-place out of the 34 participants.
Kate Stimson (14th place), Emma Leathers (16th place), Amber Bond (24th place) and Elaine Wong (32nd place) rounded out the Trinity girls runners on the day.
With the top finishes, Butler, Lintereur and Robertson made the first-team All-Heritage League, while Kate Stimson made the second-team.
Shane Lintereur finished in first place out of the boys runners, leading the Knights to Heritage League win.
Andrew Pfeiffer, after taking first-place in Heritage League Meet No. 1, finished in third place behind Lintereur and second-place finisher Sam Kahn from Bridges High School.
Judah Palmisano, John Cervantes-King and Luke Pfeiffer also finished inside the top 10 of the boys runner in the sixth, seventh and eighth place, respectively.
“I think I did alright,” Palmisano said. “It was as great as the last time we ran here, but I kept pushing and I had a little bit of a cramp today, but I was consistent tight my first mile like I usually am which is close to like a six-minute mile and then I pushed for the down and that’s really the key for me.”
Lance Lott, Chase Crister, Chapman Wolf, Liam Hambel-Rodin finished inside the top 50 of the boys runners.
Lintereur, Andrew Pfeiffer, Palmisano and John Cervantes-King made first team All-Heritage League while Luke Pfeiffer and Lance Lott were named to the second team.
“Both teams did great today,” said Trinity cross-country coach Kathleen Kahovec. “The girls pulled out the win barely over Faith Baptist. For two weeks we have been talking about them being after us because they beat us two weeks ago and so we were going to push hard and practice hard and the girls pulled it out.
“The boys had a great race. They have been excited all along looking ahead to playoffs and CIF-Prelims and Finals and they were ready to go today.”
Note: Final boys times were not available as of press deadline.
