Mira Costa’s Savannah Pio sprints past Chloe Curtis of Redondo for a five-second victory in the second Bay League meet. The rivals go head-to-head in the Bay League finals today. Photo by Ray Vidal

Chasing down Redondo’s Cody Schmidt and Mira Costa’s Savannah Pio will be the formidable task when many of the area’s top runners meet today at Entradero Park in Torrance to compete in the Bay League cross country finals at 1:30 p.m.
Schmidt and Pio have won the boys and girls divisions, respectively, at the first two Bay League meets and are coming off strong performances at the prestigious Mt. SAC Invitationals.
Schmidt finished second in the boys team sweepstakes with a time of 14:57. Simon Schmidt’s fourth-place finished helped Redondo place 13th in the Division I and II team sweepstakes.
The twin brothers hope to pace Redondo to an upset win over Palos Verdes. The Sea Kings captured the first two Bay meets and are ranked No. 4 in Division III of the CIF Southern Section and No. 6 in the state in the same division. Redondo is ranked No. 5 in the Southern Section and No. 9 in the state in Division II.

The girls race will showcase Pio and Redondo’s Chloe Curtis, the top two finishers in the second Bay meet. Pio shaved one minute, 30 seconds off her 2007 time to place 11th at Mt. SAC with a mark of 18:03, leading Mira Costa to a 9th-place finish in the team sweepstakes.
Curtis finished 9th in the Mt. SAC Division I and II individual sweepstakes with a time of 17:54, helping the Sea Hawks tie for 5th place as a team.
Competition in the girls division will be fierce, with four teams ranked in the CIF’s top ten competing for the league crown. In Division II, Mira Costa and Redondo are ranked third and fourth, respectively, and seventh and ten in the state.
Palos Verdes is ranked No. 7 in CIF Division III, just ahead of West who holds the eight spot. ER