WALNUT -- Simi Valley and Saugus had taken parallel journeys to reach the 64 th annual Mount San Antonio College Invitational, but the national girls' cross country powers finally crossed paths Saturday.
Not on the 2.91-mile course, but near the awards area.
After winning the girls' junior varsity national championship for the fourth time, Saugus' varsity surged past the field in the Div. I-II individual sweepstakes with 64 points, led by senior Karis Frankian, who moved into third on the school's all-time list by clocking 17 minutes, 12 seconds.
But Saugus found itself upstaged less than 30 minutes later by Simi Valley, which relied on sophomore Sarah Baxter's victorious effort of 16:59 and all five scorers placing in the top 25 in the Div.I-II team sweepstakes to dominate La Costa Canyon by a 55-105 margin.
"You can never predict or control what other teams are going to do, so we just focused on our own race," Simi Valley coach Roger Evans said. "I knew what our performance could be, so seeing how well they ran, it doesn't surprise me."
Simi Valley clocked a school-record 89:42 to secure the grand sweepstakes title, with Saugus' top five runners -- including sophomore Abigail Frankian's JV national-winning mark of 18:31 -- producing a combined effort of 90:31. Had the teams squared off in a dual-meet format, Simi Valley would have prevailed 24-31.
"(Karis and Sarah) are going to offset each other, so the question is can we move up into that group behind Baxter?" Saugus coach Rene Paragas said. "Roger is a great coach, so I know they're going to be prepared. It was a tough day for us. This shows we've still got a lot of work to do."
With Abigail Frankian, Nina Sassano (18:36) and Jessica McCall (18:55) taking three of the top four spots in the JV nationals to help Saugus clock 94:53 and break its 2008 record, Karis Frankian added another individual victory for the Centurions.
The senior overcame a four-second deficit at the 2-mile mark, rallying in the final 800 meters to defeat Colony's Xochitl Navarette (17:21).
"At the top of Reservoir (Hill), I knew I had to go for it," Karis Frankian said. "When I got on the airstrip and was running toward the the gantlet, I gave it everything I had. When I finally passed her, I said to myself, 'I want this. I want to get this.'"
After Royal freshman Brianne Holland (18:05) took ninth, Saugus' trio of Jenay Jauregui (18:13), Katie Huntington (18:14) and Jordan McCall (18:21) finished 12th through 14th, with Tiffany West (19:04) in 29th for the Centurions. Golden Valley's Chelsey Totten (18:45) was 21st, Royal's Sophie Mateu (18:50) took 23rd and Ali Johnson (18:56) finished 25th for Crescenta Valley, which took third with 179 points.
Baxter, racing for only the second time this season, surged ahead of Xavier Prep's Sarah Fakler (17:31) and Harvard-Westlake's Cami Chapus (17:45) on the switchbacks and never relinquished control to produce the meet's fastest time, just ahead of Oakmont's Karlie Garcia (17:00), the Div. III sweepstakes champion Friday.
"My first race I went out too hard and it hurt the last mile, so (Saturday) I wanted to be more cautious and I didn't want to go out too fast," Baxter said. "When I came back (from being injured), I wanted to be here with my team because that's what really matters. We did so well together. It's amazing."
Simi Valley senior co-captain Karla Vernola, sidelined parts of the past three seasons with various injuries, placed fifth in a personal-best 17:56, a 54-second improvement from the 2009 invitational, her last race on the full Mount SAC course.
"My season goal was to break 18 at Mount SAC, but I wasn't going to put any pressure on myself, so this is a nice little surprise," Vernola said.
Rachel Vinas (18:07) was 11th, Erika Barr (18:14) took 15th and freshmen Sarah Riggs (18:26) and Desirae Jones (18:49) placed 23rd and 39th for Simi Valley. Harvard-Westlake's Amy Weissenbach (18:41) was 32nd and Thousand Oaks sisters Kalin Padberg (18:59) and Ashton Padberg (19:01) were 42nd and 44th.
Valencia, competing without injured junior Maddie Dignadice, won its Div. I varsity race (57 points), led by a third-place finish from Arianna Michaels (18:39). Highland, paced by a victorious Vanessa Lopez (18:48) and fifth-place Annie Radigan (19:02), won its Div. I varsity race with 87 points, ahead of Burbank (104).
Led by a one-two finish from Nicki Ghazarian (18:58) and Jenny Giguere (19:12), Westlake won its Div. II race with 53 points. Canyon, led by Madison Hills (19:07), was second to Redondo Union (42) in its Div.II race with 134 points, and Moorpark won its Div. II heat with 55 points with Camarillo (69) placing third.