Inland Empire cross-country: Murrieta Valley’s not running out of gas

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Looking for a reason to attend a high school cross-country meet? Tired of reading reports from non-runners like myself, who need an ATV to keep up with the action?

Then break out the new jogging suit and head down to Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut on Saturday morning for the Southern Section championships.

The Murrieta Valley boys’ team and Saugus girls are undeafeated this season and ranked No. 1 in the state, according to dyestat.com. That makes each clear favorites to win Division I titles.

Murrieta Valley rested two of its top runners at the preliminaries Saturday at Mt. SAC but still won their qualifying heat. Believe it not, non-cross-country fans, there’s plenty of strategy involved in this sport.

The Nighthawks have come a long way since opening the season ranked No. 8 in Division I. That changed when they won the season-opening Woodbridge Invitational, and it has been all downhill from there.

A couple San Bernardino County teams that will be in the hunt for section titles are two-time defending state champion Barstow in Division III and Big Bear in Division IV.

Big Bear, by the way, is coached by Mickey Hall, whose son, Ryan, won the Olympic trials in the marathon two weeks ago.

I wrote about Kauren Tarver of Serrano a couple of days ago. She could be one of the fastest runners Saturday. On the team side, Redlands has taken a step back since early in the season, but will be in the hunt for a state title berth.

-- Dan Arritt

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