Curran Takes a Lighter Look at Simi Valley

Rather than bemoan his team’s third-place finish in the Empire League, Esperanza Coach Mike Curran is having more fun glorifying Simi Valley, his team’s opponent in today’s Southern Section 5-A Division quarterfinal playoff game.

Before shedding a tear for Curran’s team, which is 19-8, keep in mind that the Aztecs won the 4-A title in 1986--the year they beat Simi Valley in the semifinals--and were runners-up to Lakewood last season. And the two teams that finished ahead of Esperanza in the league--El Dorado and Los Alamitos--didn’t make it out of the second round.

It is difficult to tell whether Curran’s admiration is sincere or feigned in an attempt to psyche up his team or psyche out Simi Valley. Either way, it’s humorous.

On Simi Valley’s lineup: “It seems every time we play them they’re putting their best team ever on the field.

They’ve got an All-CIF shortstop batting sixth. Who’s batting one through five, All-Americans?”

On Simi Valley’s lineup, which includes Scott Sharts, a 15-homer man: “Maybe they’ll come over here and bunt. We hope so.”

On the Pioneers’ 23-5 record: “What do they have, four or five losses? Heck, we’ve had that in a week.”

Finally, on the matchup: “You definitely don’t look at Simi Valley and think, ‘Oh, God, Simi Valley .’ But I think Simi Valley would rather play us than play Simi Valley.”

Cowboy shocker: No athlete improved more drastically at the Southern Section track championships at Cerritos College on Saturday than Canyon’s Cindy Byrne, who won the girls’ 4-A Division 300-meter low hurdles in 43.47 seconds, 2.51 seconds better than her previous best.

Ranked fifth in the division, the 5-foot, 8-inch junior reasoned that she had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“I just told myself to go out as hard as I could and try to maintain it,” she said. “My goal was to qualify for the Masters meet and run under 45 seconds. I didn’t care if it was 44.999. I just wanted to break 45.”

Byrne not only qualified for the Masters meet--competitors with the nine best marks in each event do so--but she ran the fastest time in the Southern Section this season and stamped herself as a potential top-five finisher in the state championships.

“I was still in shock when I woke up Sunday,” Byrne said. “I kept saying, please don’t let this be a dream.”

Canyon girls’ Coach Gary Lindberg was not surprised with Byrne’s victory, but he was shocked with the time.

“She almost stopped at the first hurdle in the prelims but still ran 45.98,” Lindberg said. “So I knew she was ready to run a second faster than that. But under 44, I wasn’t expecting that. . . . It was just a case of an athlete putting everything together.”

Gone but not forgotten: Crescenta Valley’s Morgan Bateman succeeded Rio Mesa’s Travis Cooksey as this year’s boys’ Southern Section 4-A Division 800 champion, but the Falcon junior missed his rival.

“I sympathize with him,” Bateman said after running a personal best of 1 minute, 52.79 seconds. “You never want to see something like that happen to one of your competitors.”

Cooksey, who has run 1:52.05, did not qualify for the finals after he was tripped and fell in the prelims.

“The first lap would have been much faster if Travis had been in there,” Bateman said of Saturday’s race. “The first lap would have been 53 seconds instead of 55. I probably would have laid off his shoulder.”

As it was, Bateman led at the 400-meter mark in 55.5 seconds, then blew the race open with a 27.9 third 200. “I was surprised that they let me get that far ahead,” he said.

Add Cooksey: Although the Spartan senior did not qualify for the Southern Section finals, his senior track season is not over as evidenced by his 1:53.68 800 in an Olympic Trials qualifying meet at Santa Monica City College on Friday.

“He’s running very well right now,” Rio Mesa Coach Brian FitzGerald said. “It’s just unfortunate that he wasn’t able to run in the Southern Section meet.”

Cooksey is scheduled race against national 800 leader Gilbert Contreras (1:51.6) of El Paso, Tex., in the Great Southwestern Invitational at Arizona State in Tempe on Saturday.

Back to basics: After struggling for much of the season, Mike Glaze of Notre Dame placed second in the 2-A Division 1,600-meter race, displaying the form that garnered him a third-place finish in the 1987 state Division II cross-country championships.

Glaze’s time of 4:13.93 lowered his previous best by more than five seconds and moved him into second place on the Valley-area list.

Notre Dame Coach Jon Mack felt Glaze’s season-long slump was because of mental problems. However, Glaze said it was physical.

“My dad and I sat down and analyzed my training logs and we discovered that I had been running as little as 30 miles a week,” Glaze explained. “So I started running 45 miles per week and working out on the turbo trainer.”

The turbo trainer, a stationary bicycle, has been popularized by Granada Hills assistant Bob Augello, who coaches Ian Alsen, one of the nation’s top high school distance runners. “It really helped,” Glaze said. “I feel much stronger than I did a month ago.”

Glaze’s time was the fifth fastest of the four divisions and qualified him for Friday’s Masters meet at Cerritos.

Steven Fleischman and staff writer John Ortega contributed to this notebook.