National Cross-Country Races : It May All Boil Down to ‘The Hill’

Nothing may have a greater bearing in deciding the winners of today’s Kinney National Cross-Country races than a section of the Morley Field course known as “The Hill.”

The runners twice have to climb The Hill, a steep, 75-yard-long incline at the 1- and 2.5-mile markers in the race. After the course levels off for 25 yards, there is another hill that sneaks up on the runners because its incline is more gradual than the first. The conclusion to the course is a steep downgrade directly along Upas Street.

Three San Diego County runners--Kira Jorgensen (Vista High School), Marc Davis (San Diego) and Robbie Lopes (Monte Vista)--have used their “home course” advantage over the past week to study The Hill in preparation for the national championship meet, which begins at 10 a.m.

No one knows The Hill better than Davis, whose school is located within sight of the Morley Field course.

Davis, 16, the top junior finisher (eighth overall) in last year’s race and the favorite to win the 10:30 a.m. boys’ race, knows what it will take.

“You have to have the strength to battle up it, especially when you go up it a second time,” he said. “You can’t go out there and just try to get out in front and take hold of it. Somebody will hold back and just eat you up at the end, especially with that hill. By the time you get past it a second time, unless you are just a superman, you are going to get killed.”

Lopes, 18, a two-time San Diego Section 3-A titlist, was a spectator at last year’s race and recalls that “The Hill is where the top five guys all switched around. The Hill really changed things around.”

But it’s not going up that concerns Lopes.

“I’m not that good of a downhill runner,” he said. “A lot of other guys can really fly going downhill. I can’t. I make up most of my time on the up hills and the flats.”

Jorgensen, 15, the top freshman finisher (14th overall) last year, is hoping to improve.

“I’d be satisfied with the top 10,” she said. “I’d like to win. That would be just amazing, but that’s kind of out of the question.”

Out of the question because of the return of defending champion Erin Keogh of McLean, Va., who finished 24 seconds ahead of the runner-up and 59.3 seconds ahead of Jorgensen last year.

Still, no one has won the national title twice.

Lopes also said a top-10 finish is within his reach, though last August it didn’t appear he would ever get the chance to run for the national championship. A stress fracture in his right foot sidelined him for six weeks. Lopes finished fourth at last week’s Kinney Western Regionals in Fresno.

“I’m going to have to get into the low 15s (minutes) or under 15,” he said. “It’s going to have to take a lot more speed in the last half mile to make the top 10.”

Only six San Diego County runners have ever participated in the Kinney National, now in its eighth year. Five of those entries have been in the past two years.

Lopes finished 19th in the regional last year as a junior and fourth this year. Jorgensen finished sixth as a freshman last year and fourth this year. Both runners believe that the regional, with its pressure to qualify for nationals, was their biggest test.

But, Davis, who placed first in the regional with a record time of 14:38.2, says the national is where the pressure is for him.

“This is going to decide, basically the rest of my life,” he said. “I’m not going to do anything less than first. That’s all I want to think. If I think anything less, I have a chance of doing something less.”

As the top junior finisher a year ago, Davis is considered the runner to beat. He is ranked as the nation’s best high school runner by Track and Field News.

“I’m the guy everybody’s out for,” he said. “If people want to come after me, well, all the luck to them.”

And then, pointing toward Upas Street and The Hill, Davis said: “That’s where it’s going to be. Right there. That’s where I’m going to make up the distance I need.”