For Palos Verdes High, Meet in New York Will Really Be Cross Country

This is the week the Palos Verdes High School cross-country teams really do go cross country.

The Sea Kings’ trip to New York for Saturday’s 15th annual Manhattan College Invitational makes them the first Southern California cross-country team, as best as anyone in authority can recall, to go beyond Arizona or Nevada.

Moreover, they will be running in an Eastern version of the Mt. San Antonio Invitational. Most of the best high school runners along the Eastern seaboard, from as far south as Florida, are entered.

“They’re anxious to go to represent PV High,” Coach Joe Kelly said. “I don’t think they have the thought that they’re going to represent all of California. It’ll be different because we’ve been running against the same teams for so long.

“Mostly, I like the change, the chance to take a trip together and run against more good competition. I don’t know if the competition is any better than in California, but I know we’ll be going against the best the East has to offer.”

As was the case last season, Palos Verdes is among the best California has to offer. The girls’ team, in fact, is the best, according to the International Sports Exchange state rankings for Division I, and the boys are second, behind El Monte Arroyo. Top individual runners are Ashley Black and Tracy Leichter on the girls’ team, and David Scudamore on the boys.

The rest of the state rankings have Newport Beach Corona del Mar atop the boys’ Division II, Riverside Sherman Indian boys’ Division III, Irvine Woodbridge girls’ Division II and Lancaster Paraclete girls’ Division III.

For the first time, California will hold a state meet, Nov. 28 at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Add cross-country: Deena Drosin, a 14-year-old freshman on the Agoura girls’ team, continues to impress, though it hardly comes as a surprise. She was the national age-group champion in the 11-12 and 13-14 divisions and has not lost a race in three years.

She scored her latest victory last Saturday in Crescenta Valley’s Kenny Staub Invitational at La Crescenta. Drosin, running without much competition in the 100-degree heat, finished in 17 minutes 47 seconds, becoming only the second high school girl to break 18 minutes on the course. Melissa Sutton of Newbury Park ran 17:31 last year.

Agoura, which went into the meet as the fifth-ranked girls’ team in the Southern Section 2-A, finished second to Palos Verdes.

The Charger boys’ team, second in the 2-A going in, finished fourth, behind Palos Verdes and Camarillo, both top-five teams in the 4-A, and Upland, No. 2 in the 3-A, and ahead of a couple of teams in the 4-A’s top 10, Thousand Oaks and Canyon of Canyon Country.

Bryan Dameworth, Agoura’s freshman star of a year ago, won his fifth consecutive race this season.

Servite of Anaheim, the mystery team of Southern Section football, heads north this week for the first of five straight games against Los Angeles County opponents.

Which Friar team will show up? The one that tied Colton to open the season, the one that needed two field goals to beat Marina three weeks ago, 6-0, and a touchdown with 5:31 left in the game to get by 0-4 Fountain Valley last Saturday, 17-10? Or the one that played as if it has as much talent as any team in routing Edison two weeks ago, 34-0?

For starters, they have perhaps the best kicker in the state, Pat Blottiaux, and the top set of linebackers in the Southern Section, Mike Petko, Garrett Greedy and Chris Melodia, and one of the top running backs, Derek Brown. Beyond that, there’s a good pair of receivers, Oscar Ford and Jason Rees, a solid up-the-middle fullback in Bill Frank and an improving quarterback, Jason Frank.

Blottiaux is 5 for 11 on field goals this season, but those numbers are misleading. Four of his misses were on opening-night attempts of 58, 59 and two at 62, and he had two kicks blocked last week.

The numbers to notice are successful kicks of 55 and 56 yards against Huntington Beach Marina, and one of 50 against Huntington Beach Edison that cleared the goal post at Glover Stadium in Anaheim by 10 to 15 yards.

First up for Servite is Long Beach Jordan, followed by Santa Fe Springs St. Paul, La Puente Bishop Amat, Playa del Rey St. Bernard and Torrance Bishop Montgomery. The Friars then will close out the regular season with Santa Ana Mater Dei.

Todd Marinovich of Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley broke the Southern Section career passing record last Friday, throwing for 283 yards to give him 7,644 in four years. Pat Haden of Bishop Amat held the previous mark, 7,633.

Marinovich, who has 929 yards in the first four games of 1987, needs to average 194 yards an outing over the final six regular-season games to set new state and national marks. Ron Cuccia, the three-time City player of the year at Los Angeles Wilson in the 1970s, holds both at 8,804. Marinovich is fifth, 124 yards behind fourth-place Sol Graves of Monroe, La.

Prep Notes With Pasadena Muir losing last week after 27 straight victories and El Toro after 17, Garden Grove Bolsa Grande has the longest winning streak in the Southern Section at 13. . . . Newport Harbor of Newport Beach reaffirmed its No. 1 spot in the Southern Section 5-A girls’ volleyball rankings by defeating No. 2 Corona del Mar, 15-0, to win the prestigious San Marcos Tournament Saturday at UC Santa Barbara. The Sailors also won in five games when the teams met in Sea View League play four days earlier. Jenny Evans had 28 kills in the first meeting and was successful on 9 of 11 kill attempts last Saturday. . . .Fullerton Sunny Hills, the defending Southern Section 4-A water polo champion, won its 100th consecutive league game last Thursday by beating Fullerton, 22-3. The Lancers’ last lost in league play in 1976.

Doug MacKenzie, who coached the Canoga park baseball team to the City 4-A championship last season, has been replaced by Horace Consolo, longtime junior varsity coach. MacKenzie had hoped to remain with the Hunters after retiring as a teacher, but school officials said they wanted coaches to be faculty members. He said he would like to work elsewhere as a walk-on coach. . . . Cherry Creek High in Colorado won its 202nd consecutive tennis match last week, breaking the national record. The previous mark belonged to Henry M. Gunn High in Palo Alto, Calif., set from 1969-79. Cherry Creek’s streak started in 1970. . . . Quincy Watts of Woodland Hills Taft has been named the Gatorade track athlete of the year for California. He won state titles in the 100- and 200-meter dash in June. . . The 1988 McDonald’s all-star basketball game, featuring 25 of the top graduating high school players in the country, will be played April l7 in Albuquerque, N.M.

Times’ Prep Polls

SOUTHERN SECTION

No. School League Record 1. Fontana Citrus Belt 4-0-0 2. Crespi Del Rey 3-0-1 3. Eisenhower Citrus Belt 4-0-0 4. Bishop Amat Angelus 4-0-0 5. Capistrano Valley South Coast 4-0-0 6. Loyola Del Rey 4-0-0 7. Antelope Valley Golden 4-0-0 8. El Toro South Coast 3-1-0 9. Palmdale Golden 3-1-0 10. Burbank Burroughs Foothill 4-0-0 11. Hart Foothill 3-1-0 12. Santa Monica Ocean 3-0-0 13. Thousand Oaks Marmonte 4-0-0 14. Santa Ana Century 3-1-0 15. Alemany Del Rey 3-0-1

CITY

No. School League Record 1. Carson Pacific 2-0-0 2. San Fernando Valley 2-0-0 3. Granada Hills Valley 1-1-0 4. Canoga Park Sunset 2-0-0 5. Palisades Crosstown 1-1-0 6. Gardena Pacific 1-1-0 7. Reseda Pac-8 1-0-0 8. Locke Freeway 1-1-0 9. Cleveland Valley 1-1-0 10. Franklin Freeway 1-0-0