The Laguna Hills Cross Country Invitational, considered by many as the unofficial start to the cross country season, is comprised of 24 individual races — and nearly as many story lines.

As the 35th annual meet got underway Saturday at Laguna Hills High, one of those story lines centered around the Division 3 junior race that featured JSerra's Anthony Grover, the defending CIF state champion.

Grover seemed to pick up right where he left off, devouring the 3-mile course in a meet-best 15:15.6, nearly 41 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Sean Robertson of Capistrano Valley.

"I think that was a good opener," said Grover, who also captured the Orange County championships and CIF-SS titles as a sophomore and was the Register's Cross Country Athlete of the Year. "It was just a first race to shake out the rust."

Grover, who won at Laguna Hills for the third year in a row, said he's entering the season in better shape than last year and hopes to notch one of the top five times in the state by season's end.

"I think 14:30 on most 3-mile courses is pretty doable," he said.

On the girls' side, senior Nadia Tabrizi came in as one of premier runners in the meet. Tabrizi, who said she trained hard over the summer, won the Division 2 senior race in 18:26.7, 22 seconds ahead of Calvary Chapel's Elizabeth Radmilovich, who took second.

"It definitely gives me confidence," said Tabrizi , who finished sixth at the state meet and seventh in the Southern Section finals in 2017. It feels good to win a race. I'm just excited to get into the racing season."

"Anthony Grover was a machine, winning from wire to wire in a strong solo effort," Head Coach Marty Dugard said. "Not to be outdone, [senior] Peter Herold had an amazing second-place performance in the senior boys race and Nadia Tabrizi won the senior girls race with. Strong solo effort by all."

For more details on this exciting meet, visit OCRegister.com.