High School Roundup : Dameworth Defends Title and Avenges Only Loss

Bryan Dameworth of Agoura, a notorious front-runner, came from behind Friday to win the Ventura County cross-country championships at Moorpark College.

Six days after losing to Mike Williamson of Thousand Oaks in the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational--his first loss of the season--Dameworth surged away from Williamson in the last half-mile to win by 8 seconds.

Dameworth’s time of 15 minutes, 12 seconds was a personal best over the 3-mile course and 33 seconds faster than he ran in winning last year’s county meet. He was not satisfied with the effort, however.

“I’m glad I won, but I hate running tactical races like that,” said Dameworth, the defending state Division I champion. “That’s not what I want to do. That’s not what it’s all about.”

Williamson, who gunned down Dameworth in the final 1,000 yards at Mt. SAC, admitted that he made a mistake taking the early lead.

“I didn’t plan to do that,” he said, “But that’s the way things turned out. . . . He made a big surge in the last half-mile and I started to feel pretty tired then.”

Camarillo teammates Shawn Goetzinger (15:32) and Abe Valdez (15:39) placed third and fourth as the Scorpions, with 54 points, romped to their second consecutive county title.

Thousand Oaks (98) placed second and Agoura (108) was third.

In the girls’ race, Agoura teammates Deena Drossin (18:39) and Tiffany York (19:15) placed 1-2 for the second consecutive year as the Chargers made a successful defense of their team title.

Agoura scored 50 points, well ahead of Newbury Park (89) and Nordhoff (115).

WATER POLO

Royal 17, Newbury Park 2--Cousins Devin Hurst (6 goals) and Todd Hurst (4 goals) led the Royal charge in a Marmonte League match at Newbury Park.

Goalkeeper Mike Joel recorded 9 saves and scored a rare goal on a length-of-the-pool shot for the Highlanders (12-6, 9-0).

Harvard 9, Crespi 7--Justin Cheen scored 3 goals for the Southern Section 2-A Division’s top-ranked Saracens (21-3) in a nonleague match at Harvard.

Tom Woiwode scored 4 goals for Crespi (9-8).