Santa Clara High's Roberto Garcia will be surrounded by teammates for next week's CIF-Southern Section cross country Division V prelims at Mount San Antonio College.

Garcia, a senior, was the Frontier League champion, as he won the three-mile race in 17 minutes, 52 seconds on Thursday at Moorpark College.

Carpinteria was the team champion with 24 points and Santa Clara was second with 30 points. Malibu was third with 52 points.

In the girls' race, Becki Ottusch of Malibu was the winner in 21:57. Division III Carpinteria was the team champion with 33 points. Division IV Malibu was second with 56 and Division V Santa Clara was third with 72 points.

Garcia said he was sore from his Tuesday workout.

"I trusted my fitness and it helped me come through," said Garcia.

A year ago, he went to the CIF prelims as an individual and said he was lonely and ran a bad race.

"I'm more motivated with my team (boys and girls) going to CIF," said Garcia, who was a freshman when Santa Clara finished third in the state meet.

Geno Sharp, the Santa Clara coach, said Garcia is running his best at the right time.

"He has had a good season running," said Sharp. "He ran a personal best in the Mount SAC Invitational and he broke 17 minutes in the Ventura County championships," said Sharp.

Ottusch, a senior, is no stranger to the winner's circle. She was the league champion as a junior and was a state individual qualifier as a freshman.

It was her third league meet win this season.

"I was preparing myself for CIF," she said.

"It was pretty had those last two hills, but I felt good and confident."

Ottusch hopes to run in college, but she's applying at schools like MIT and Stanford.

She's taking advanced-placement classes and enjoys math and science.

Carpinteria's Kacey Nomura was second in 22:27. Casey Siuniak of Villanova was third in 22:35. Carpinteria's Nicole Speath was fourth at 22:36.

Santa Clara's Marisol Ontiveros was fifth in 22:37. Santa Clara's Gina Fote was sixth in 22:37. Kelli Sinclair of Grace Brethren was seventh in 23:28.

In the boys' race, Carpinteria's Briggs Deardorff was second at 18:14, Malibu's Cameron Burrell was third at 18:18. Ryan Needle of Malibu was fifth at 18:45.

Santa Clara's Andres Zarate was 10th in 19:46 and George Verdier was 11th in 19:52.