Healthy Drossin Leads Agoura Girls to Runner-Up Finish in State Meet

Deena Drossin of Agoura High did not win the Division I girls’ title at the state cross-country championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday. But the race was a victory nonetheless.

For the first time this season, Drossin, the defending state champion, resembled the runner she was before a foot injury sidelined her for the first half of this fall’s cross-country season.

Drossin clocked 17 minutes, 55 seconds over the 5,000-meter course to finish third behind Kira Jorgensen (17:42) of Rancho Buena Vista and Rayna Cervantes (17:50) of Montebello.

More importantly, she resembled the runner who had run 17:37 over Mt. San Antonio College’s 3-mile course last year, not the one who ran a minute slower in struggling to a second-place finish in last week’s Southern Section 2-A Division finals.

And, with Drossin resembling her old self--if that’s possible when you’re 15--Agoura duplicated its runner-up finish of 1987, again placing behind Palos Verdes.

The 65-108 score was not as close as in 1987 (70-91), but Agoura Coach Bill Duley was just as pleased.

“I told the girls all week that they could beat Palos Verdes,” Duley said. “But realistically, I just hoped they would finish second. I figured if they set their goals high, if they went after PV, that it would be hard for anyone else to beat them.”

Tiffany York (16th in 18:55), Cheyenne Zontelli (42nd in 19:40), Michelle Schultz (64th in 20:01) and Stacey Kristan (70th in 20:11) rounded out the Chargers’ scoring.

Running in only her sixth race of the season, Drossin junked her usual front-running tactics and passed the mile mark seventh in 5:35. By 2 miles, negotiated in 11:25, Drossin had moved up to second.

Jorgensen, the defending Kinney national cross-country champion who won the Division II title at last year’s state meet, led at the mile in 5:25 but appeared to be struggling when she passed 2 miles in 11:19.

“Kira looked sluggish,” Duley said. “And Deena looked great. I really thought she might catch her.”

Drossin thought so, too, but her bid failed and Southern Section 3-A champion Cervantes passed her with 800 meters to go.

“I felt good, but Rayna was just stronger than me,” Drossin said.

Duley was especially pleased with Drossin’s effort, her best this year by 41 seconds.

“This meet could have been a real negative experience for her if she hadn’t run well,” he said. “But she turned it into a real positive experience instead. She hung in there the first mile and displayed a lot of patience.”

Christy Stubbs of El Camino Real, fourth in last week’s City Section meet, was a disappointing 94th. In the girls’ Division III race--for schools with 700 or less students--L. A. Baptist placed eighth with 190 points.