Agoura’s Dameworth Rates Among Favorites to Win National Race

For the first time in recent years, there will be no clear-cut favorite for the boys’ title at today’s Kinney national high school cross-country championships at Morley Field in San Diego.

The heavy pre-race favorite has won each of the past 3 championships. Reuben Reina of San Antonio, Tex., won in ‘85; Marc Davis of San Diego took first a year later; and Bob Kennedy of Westerville, Ohio, was last year’s national champion.

But the 1988 field is wide open. More than a dozen runners, including Bryan Dameworth of Agoura, are tabbed as favorites in the 32-runner field.

“The boys’ race should be very exciting this year,” promoter Don Franken said. “There are a lot of kids who could win it.”

The meet starts with the girls’ race at 10 a.m., followed by the boys’ race at 10:45. Both races are run over a 2-loop 5,000-meter course.

Dameworth, the two-time defending state Division I champion, finished second to Francis O’Neill of San Pasqual High in Escondido at the West regionals last week. But Agoura Coach Bill Duley said that the Charger junior has a legitimate shot at winning today.

“Honestly, I think that any one of the eight runners from the West region could win,” said Duley, who is also Dameworth’s stepfather. “And there’s probably another seven or eight guys from the rest of the country who could, too.

“No junior has ever won the nationals, so Bryan would like to be the first. We’re definitely going to give it our best shot.”

Mike Williamson of Thousand Oaks has a more conservative goal, aiming for a finish among the top 15, which would earn him All-American honors.

Williamson won the Southern Section 4-A Division title, placed second to Dameworth in the state meet and finished eighth--only 9 seconds behind O’Neill--in the tightly contested West regional.

Jason DiJoseph of Haddonfield, N. J., and Kevin Herd of Aurora, Colo,. also rate among the favorites.

DiJoseph, the East regional champion, is running in his third national championship after finishing 18th and 21st in 1986 and ’87.

Kira Jorgensen of Rancho Buena Vista High in Vista is favored to defend her girls’ title.

Jorgensen won the state Division I title and her second consecutive Kinney west regional crown this year.

Sophomore Deena Drossin of Agoura, third in the state Division I championships and fifth in the West regional, hopes to improve on her 11th-place finish at last year’s national championships.

Reyna Cervantes of Montebello could be Jorgensen’s toughest challenger. She placed second to her at the state meet and the West regionals.