Valley, Canyons Ready for Cross-Country Regionals

The women’s teams of two Valley-area community colleges outdid their male counterparts in last week’s cross-country conference finals and are expected to do well again during today’s Southern California Regionals at Bonelli Park in San Dimas.

Valley College easily won against lackluster competition in the Mountain Valley Conference finals. Valley’s women competed only against L. A. Trade Tech.

Antelope Valley, L. A. Southwest and College of the Canyons each lacked the minimum five runners to make a full team, although two runners from Canyons qualified for regional competition.

Winning the regionals will not be as easy. Valley Coach Bernie Christian expects strong competition from Pasadena, Mira Costa and East L. A.

The Monarchs, however, will be led by two tough runners of their own, Gretchen Lohr and Kim Stewart. Stewart, who continued to improve throughout the regular season, won the conference finals at Canyons with a time of 17:40 on the three-mile course. Lohr was second at 18:02.

“We went to two invitationals earlier in the season,” Christian said. “One was at Moorpark and the other at Mt. San Antonio. We beat Pasadena at Moorpark, so I think we have a real good chance.”

The conference victory allows the entire Valley team to compete. Also representing the Monarchs will be Sandra Martinez, Donna DiMaggio, Maureen Doderlein, Donna Jackson and Kathy Smith.

Other area women representing the conference will be Teresa Schoenmann and Patrice Trout of Canyons. Both finished strong enough in the conference finals to earn a shot at the regionals.

The Valley men’s team didn’t fare as well at the finals, placing third. Trade Tech finished first.

Reggie Dechard of Valley finished fourth, while Carlos Fonseca of Mission was fifth in the conference finals. Both earned a trip to Bonelli Park, but will face strong competition by Abel Ramos of Trade Tech. Ramos won the finals by more than a minute with a time of 18:15 on a four-mile course.

Others in the regionals are Lane Olsen and Ron Belisle of Valley and Jim Pontius of Canyons.

Lisa Ash, with a winning time of 18:38, led the Moorpark women’s team to a Western State Conference championship last week, earning the entire team a spot at the regionals.