Sean McDonald
Sports Editor
It wasn’t that long ago when football players were wishing they had quit so they didn’t have to do two-a-days, that water polo players were wishing they could have 15 more minutes of sleep before morning practice, and that cross country runners wished the dust on Agony Hill would never enter their lungs again.
But it is with this pain, sweat, and hard work that determines a team’s course of events, and that ultimately pushes them to end their season in tears, or triumphantly hoisting the trophy. And with that, we take a look at the fall season of Mira Costa sports.
At the beginning of Mira Costa’s football season, things were looking grim. Most hope was lost after El Segundo fans stormed the field and Mira Costa’s record dropped to 1-2 in their 18-14 loss. But since then, the Mustangs have only lost once, and perhaps the sweetest moment of the season was a 21-20 battle in the trenches over Palos Verdes, who hadn’t lost a league game since October 23, 2010.
“Beating Palos Verdes was a huge accomplishment,” senior linebacker Jordan Fischer said. “It showed our team how good we can be if we all work hard together during practice and the games. It also showed the level our team can play at and is a huge confidence boost going into the playoffs.”
Mira Costa’s water polo team has also enjoyed a successful year, capturing another Bay League title and winning almost 20 games, even in their promotion to Division 1 of California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) this year. 
Girls volleyball bucked the trend this year by capturing their first Bay League title since 2011; going undefeated throughout their league campaign. As of 11/8, the team is 30-8 overall, finished Bay League 10-0, and also is ranked 44th overall in the nation by MaxPreps.
After girls golf’s last season, it looked like it would be pretty hard to match, especially with the loss of multiple key players, including Stanford golfer Andrea Lee. But the Mustangs have fared exceptionally well. As of now, they are 11-0 overall and 6-0 in Bay League.
“You can’t ask for much more than to go undefeated in Bay League, and at the beginning of the season that was one of our main goals, so I’m very happy with the girls,” head coach Tom Cox said. “Now we are onto the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) championships and hopefully we play well in this as well.”
Boys cross country finished the season as Bay League champs and the girls finished second in league. Senior Melia Chittenden, who ran a 17:02 in the three mile race in Bay League finals, won the individual championship for girls Bay League competition.
“Winning Bay League felt exciting and encouraging,” senior Caleb Llorin said. “It is the first time we had our full varsity team running, and we performed wonderfully. We are now fully focused on moving on in CIF.”
Typically, cross country’s kryptonite has been West Torrance High School, but West switched to the pioneer league, so Mira Costa has dominated in the last two years of Bay League competition.
“After having won Bay League last year, we had a lot of high expectations coming into this season,” senior Scott Healy said. “We knew that we would have a very strong team and we have been training extremely hard throughout the year, so seeing it pay off and actually and meet our expectations was very rewarding and a big confidence boost for CIF.”
Girls’ tennis finished the season with a 15-5 overall record, mainly only struggling against top state teams like Torrey Pines and Corona Del Mar. The Mustangs opened CIF with a victory against Troy High School but lost to Arcadia in the second round, ending their season.
To round things out, boys Beach Volleyball capped off yet another excellent season with a CIF championship victory over Santa Monica. Juniors Bobby Barkley and Dane Johnson, along with seniors Cameron Steen and Kevin Pinkerton were an integral part of the team’s season, amassing a majority of the team’s kills.
View all of Mira Costa sports current records and next games
“It feels amazing to be CIF champions,” Johnson said. “It was awesome the way it all played out, and it felt great to get revenge against Santa Monica.”
Check out the athletics calendar here to catch all the upcoming events.
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