The Toughest Three Miles : Mt. San Antonio Invitational Provides the Ultimate Test for Cross-Country Runners

The hills are drab and barren, almost devoid of vegetation. Only a few tiny trees are growing.

It’s a dusty place, the harsh sun preserving its brown, inhospitable appearance into late October.

This is Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, the home of the Mt. SAC Invitational cross-country meet, the nation’s largest for high school runners.

For most, it’s more like a monument to masochism--a Siberian wasteland for the runners.

“If Mt. SAC is a gauge of anything, it’s a gauge of how tough a kid is.” said John Tansley, who coaches cross-country at Cal State Los Angeles. Tansley coached course record-holder Jeff Nelson of Burbank when both were at Glendale College in 1981. “Anyone who runs Mt. SAC well has range to run any (course), anywhere, well.”

It started Friday and continues today, with 7,000 runners from 288 high schools here to traverse the three-mile route up and down Mt. SAC’s bald hills.

For some, it’s the first time, a rite of passage to be conquered. For others, Mt. SAC has become a time-honored tradition.

In its 38th year, the meet has reached a status that, in a way, overshadows the competitors.

Can you name another sporting event with landmarks more familiar than the athletes? Can you name another sport with landmarks?

Mt. SAC’s three dreaded hills--the Switchbacks, Poop-Out and Reservoir Hill--overshadow the runners who have conquered them.

The Switchbacks come just after a flat first mile. This hill is roughly akin to San Francisco’s famous curvy Lombard Street. It is too steep to travel straight up to the summit, so the course designers carved out this maddening route.

As a runner winds his way up, his chest burns and legs begin to feel as if they’re filled with lead. The mind isn’t in good shape, either. The runner believes that the top of this confounded thing just has to be around the next turn, and when it’s not . . . OK, it’s gotta be around this corner.

The end finally appears after 220 yards of twisting and turning.

A quick three-quarters of a mile of pounding downhill follows, and that ensures the legs won’t recover from their uphill fight.

Then it’s on to Poop-Out, a sheer incline for the first half of its 300 yards. Here, and at the Switchbacks, spectators line the hillside, partly to encourage the runners and partly to see the gut-wrenching pain. Even the leaders slow to a near walk. At the back of the pack, some do walk.

Past the two-mile marker, there’s a downhill section that flattens out at the bottom of Reservoir Hill, the final uphill. It’s the shortest hill, with the gentlest grade, but after 2 1/2 miles it’s still a grind to the top. Legs and lungs burn. From there, it’s downhill to the finish.

In 1978, Nelson ran these three miles in 14 minutes 32 seconds, a course record that still stands. He broke the previous mark by 24 seconds. No one has come within six seconds of that time. In 1979, Nelson ran 8:36 for two-miles on the track, the fastest ever by a high school runner.

The 1978 meet is a lasting Mt. SAC landmark.

South Eugene High of Oregon had one of the best boys’ teams in the country in 1978, but to affirm that reputation, it needed to win at Mt. SAC. South Eugene did win that day. But even it’s No. 1 runner, Jeff Hess, later an All-American at the University of Arizona, could not catch Nelson.

There have been many who have demonstrated their mettle against the demanding course.

One is Richard Erbes of Glendale. Erbes, a senior, won the 4-A championship in 15:20 last year, run over the same course at Mt. SAC. He’ll be one of the favorites in today’s individual sweepstakes race, one of 48 to be contested, each set to start roughly 10 minutes apart.

Erbes, is a Mt. SAC veteran, having competed since he was a seventh grader in a Junior Olympics meet.

One of Mt. SAC’s great traditions is the attraction to those teams from Vacaville, Jesuit of Sacramento, University High of San Diego and Fresno Clovis, which attends yearly.

There is no state cross-country championship meet, so Mt. SAC fills that void.

It also allows Jason Lienau, Clovis’ No. 1 runner and a 4:14 miler, to compare his time and place against Glendale’s Erbes, among the thousands.

“It’s the biggest invitational,” Erbes said. “Other schools come down to see how they can place against the top schools in the state.”

Clovis Coach Steve Ward said: “Mt. SAC is a five-hour bus ride from Clovis and we have to stay overnight, so it’s got to be good for us to come all that way.”

Notes The four top-ranked boys’ teams in the state are scheduled to compete in the team sweepstakes, starting at 10:08 a.m. . . . El Monte Arroyo and Palos Verdes are the top area teams. Tops from Northern California are Bellarmine Prep of San Jose and Casa Roble of Orangevale, near Sacramento. Defending 4-A champion Richard Erbes of Glendale, Marc Davis of San Diego, who placed eighth in the Kinney national meet last fall, and Aaron Mascarro of Rosemead are entered in the individual sweepstakes at 10:30.

The Palos Verdes girls, the defending 4-A champions, are entered in the team sweepstakes, starting at 10:50. Tracey Williams of Mountain View, Nicole Nugent of Torrey Pines in San Diego and Jamie Park of Santa Barbara are among the top girls. One notable absentee will be Melissa Sutton of Newbury Park. Sutton will sit out the meet in preparation for league finals and the Southern Section preliminaries.