SOUTHERN SECTION CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS : Capistrano Valley Odd Couple Enjoy a Rivalry

Jamie Samkus and Michelle Skinner, cross-country runners at Capistrano Valley High School, made an incongruous pair.

Samkus was clad in a neon green, black and gray marbled Spandex ensemble, with silver rings, bracelets and necklaces. She waved her bright pink nails as she talked. Skinner wore a plain turquoise tank, baggy black running shorts and no jewelry.

“I hate running in T-shirts,” Samkus said. “It’s like running in a Hefty trash bag. I have tie-dyed tank tops, everything. It’s Flo Jo, the return.”

Despite their contrasting styles, the two sophomores have teamed to be top runners for Capistrano Valley’s cross-country team, which will compete in today’s Southern Section final at Mt San Antonio College. They’re also the best of friends, friend who dress differently but think alike--so much so that they often finish each other’s sentences.

“We have to be friends,” Samkus said. “Think how bad it would be to always be at each other’s throats. We have a lot in common besides being insane.

“We do compete but the finish is never predictable. We have to depend on each other.”

“Whichever one of us is ahead pushes the other,” Skinner said. “We usually come in 1-2, so we help each other along the race.”

This is their second season of cross-country, having flourished in their first year of track last season. Samkus was the frosh-soph South Coast League champion in the 800 meters, and Skinner was the varsity league champion in the 1,600.

When the season began, Capistrano Valley coaches Tom White and Ken Sayles worried that the runners’ friendship would not develop.

“We had a fear there’d be a rivalry that would not be productive,” White said, “but that seemed to not materialize. They’re a real strong one-two punch.”

Samkus and Skinner led the Cougars to their first South Coast League championships since 1981 and their first Southern Section 4-A final appearance since 1980, when they finished second. In last Friday’s semifinal meet, the Cougars finished second in their heat to Channel Island. Skinner was seventh and Samkus finished 13th.

“This is very exciting,” White said. “We were fifth or sixth in league in the beginning of the year, but we asked (the team) to believe in themselves and they did.”

Samkus and Skinner are already looking even beyond this season.

“It makes me scared because I wonder . . . this could be our only year of having all this happen to us, or we could be improving,” Samkus said.

Said Skinner: “You ask yourself, ‘What freshman is going to come up, which teammate is going to get better?’ ”

“It’s how hard you work,” Samkus said. “Last year, I was the seventh runner on the team, but over the summer, every morning I’d get up and run five miles.

“You push yourself and push yourself and you can just feel it,” she said. “I have shredded cartilage in both knees. In a race, you can’t think of it. You just work with each other. It’s totally mental.”

And then there are those differences that help keep the rivalry--and the friendship--going.

Before every race, Samkus said she takes three crystals--always the same three--and tells them exactly what she wants. “I’m kind of a flower-power kind of person,” she said. Said Skinner: “She dresses for the future, but lives in the past.”