PREP CROSS-COUNTRY : Dana Hills’ Niednagel Division I Winner

Fountain Valley Coach Matt Simpson wound his way through throngs of runners in ribboned ponytails, brightly colored spandex under running shorts, sweats, bare legs and tank tops.

Simpson was attempting to run the Fountain Valley-Huntington Beach-Reebok-Central Park Cross-Country Invitational at Central Park. He seemed to be everywhere, handing out trophies, checking on stats, congratulating runners and periodically fixing the copy machine.

“Right now, I am totally stressed out,” he said. And obviously he was not able to watch his teams closely. “On this day, it’s ‘You guys get out there, find the finish line and run your race,’ ” Simpson said. “We did OK. I thought we could have done better, but . . . “

Fountain Valley, ranked sixth in the Orange County Coaches Assn. top 10 poll, had its best finish in the boys’ Division I varsity, placing third behind Saddleback.

Onlookers were expecting a shootout between Saddleback’s Eddie Salimas and Rob Price in the boys’ Division I varsity. But Daniel Niednagel of Dana Hills won the race in 14:27.1, with Salimas second and Price third.

Two-time state champion Bryan Dameworth beat the day’s second best time by 29.1 seconds, when the 6-foot-3 senior finished in 13:56 to lead Agoura to victory in the Division II boys’ varsity race. Huntington Beach and El Dorado finished 2-3.

Agoura also won the girls’ varsity title, placing five runners in the top 10. Edison was second and Newport Harbor third.

Edison sophomore Shelley Taylor ran away with the girls’ varsity Division II title, finishing 17 seconds ahead of the runner-up. Taylor, who placed eighth in the state last season, has been running for only a year and a half. And she was challenged early by Agoura’s Deena Drossin, who had the lead about 1 1/2 miles into the course.

“I started off a little too fast,” Taylor said. “I wanted to try and stay behind Deena, with Martha (Katella’s Martha Pinto, who finished third). But I’m so used to being a front-runner. It just took me a little while to get loose.”

Fusson Keflezighi of Sherman Indian High School and Costa Mesa’s Denisha Bendz finished first in the Division III boys’ and girls’ varsity races.