ATHLETE OF THE WEEK : Point Made, Alsen to Run in City Finals

The simple part for Ian Alsen came on Saturday when the Granada Hills High senior won the Kinney West regional cross-country championships at Woodward Park in Fresno.

The complicated part came Tuesday when Alsen decided to compete in the City Section championships at Pierce College instead of the Kinney national championships in San Diego. Both meets are scheduled for Saturday.

“I’m just glad it’s over,” Alsen said of his decision. “I think I’ve showed just about everybody that I can run with those guys. I think I proved that by winning Kinney I’m as good as they are.”

Alsen is heavily favored to win the individual title at the City meet and lead Granada Hills to its first varsity boys title since 1976.

If Alsen had run at the Kinney meet instead of the City meet, the Highlanders would have been picked to place second behind five-time defending champion Belmont.

“All season long, our battle cry has been ‘Beat Belmont. Beat Belmont’ ” Coach Bob Augello of Granada Hills said. “Ian didn’t want to let the team down so he decided to run in the City meet.”

Alsen came to his decision even though Granada Hills Principal Anne Falotico had filed a request with the City Section office Tuesday to delay the start of the City meet for 1 1/2 to two hours.

Had the request been approved by the Interscholastic Athletic Committee, Alsen would have run at the Kinney meet in San Diego at 10:30 a.m., flown back to Los Angeles, then competed in the City finals at 12:30 or 1 p.m..

The varsity boys race of the City finals is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.

Augello had little confidence in the request being approved, however, so Alsen made his decision.

City Director Hal Harkness announced later Tuesday that the request had been denied.

Alsen had defeated the best high school cross-country runners from the 13 Western states in the Fresno meet, covering the 5,000-meter course in 15 minutes, 2 seconds.

Alsen, the City Section champion in the 3,200 meters, surged away from Chip Smith (15:04) of Sandia High in Albuquerque, N. M., and Christopher Schurz (15:06) of Westwood High in Scottsdale, Ariz. in the final 400 meters.

The deafening noise of the crowd scared Alsen as he neared the finish line.

“It was so loud that I thought somebody was coming up on me,” Alsen said with a laugh. “I glanced down to see if I could see any feet behind me, but I couldn’t. I wasn’t sure I had it won until I hit the finish tape.”

Before the race, the meet announcer asked coaches of possible winners to identify them. When Augello inquired he was told that Alsen wasn’t one of the 10-12 listed favorites.

So for the first 1 1/2 miles, the announcer identified Alsen as an “Unknown runner.”

“That just gave me added motivation,” Alsen said. “I just wanted to show everyone else who I was and what I was capable of. I wanted to show everyone else that the City Section has good runners.”