And this time, her teammates were able to celebrate the championship with her.

After six runner-up finishes in the program's 30-plus years of existence, and third- and fourth-place showings the past two seasons, Simi Valley finally ended its drought, defeating Westlake 38-71 to capture its first girls' varsity title.

"I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. We did it. We really did it. We went out there and destroyed it," said Miller, who covered the 3-mile course in 17 minutes, 17.97 seconds, a personal-best by nearly 40 seconds. "I woke up (Thursday morning) with this confident calm. We felt good and we weren't nervous. We knew what (Thursday) was all about and we were ready for anything that was thrown at us."

Although Liberty Miller captured her third consecutive title, it was the efforts of fellow seniors Alexis Miller (sixth, 18:48.45) -- no relation -- and Nicole Rietveld (seventh, 18:48.85), along with sophomore Karla Vernola (11th, 19:04.51) and junior Amanda Miller (13th, 19:07.54), Alexis' sister, who made the difference for the Pioneers.

Vernola was nursing an injured left leg that kept her out of the Oct. 30 Ventura County Championships. But she delivered a courageous effort to make sure Simi Valley remained in front of Westlake, Thousand Oaks (73) and Royal of Simi Valley (83).

"We have so much depth on this team that they could've done this without me," Vernola said. "But I wanted so bad to be a part of it. I didn't want to have any regret about whether or not I should've run. It's all about how bad you want it and my teammates are a perfect example of that."

Royal's Kelly Upson (18:04.28) was second, Westlake's Nicki Ghazarian (18:11.80) took third, Newbury Park's Rachel Ranucci (18:46.25) placed fourth and Thousand Oaks' Caitlin Turner (18:47.02) finished fifth.

-- Erik Boal