CITY CROSS-COUNTRY : Taft Knocks Off 7-Time Champion Belmont in Finals

Taft High placed four runners among the top 11 to dethrone seven-time defending champion Belmont in the City Section cross-country championships Saturday at Pierce College.

Obed Aguirre of San Fernando won the individual title in 15 minutes 16 seconds, outkicking Birmingham’s Brian Gastelum in the final 100 yards.

In the girls’ meet, Rosetta Hunter of Locke took the individual championship in 19:34 and Belmont edged San Pedro for the team title.

Taft’s runners christened their 52-58 victory by dousing Coach Mel Hein--and anyone else in the vicinity--with a shower of 7-Up.

Aguirre celebrated by embracing his coach, Ken Kohon.

“I owe him,” Aguirre said. “I owe him one thing that nobody knows. So I wanted to win for him.”

Kohon has taken a special interest in Aguirre since arriving at San Fernando three years ago, but they had a falling out early this season.

“He made a mistake,” Kohon said. “I really don’t want to talk about it, but I told him him there was one way to make things right. That was to win the City finals.”

Aguirre had a final burst that surprised everyone, including Gastelum. The Birmingham senior was the only runner in the field to have bettered 15 minutes on the Pierce course, and on the track he is nearly 10 seconds fastest than Aguirre in the mile. But none of that helped Gastelum when Aguirre made his final move.

“We’ve been coming out to Pierce for the last three weeks and we’ve been working on sprinting that final 100 yards,” Kohon said.

Gastelum was a heavy favorite coming into the race, and the rest of the field obviously was keying on him. But by the time he reached the first mile, the lead pack was down to six runners. Gastelum quickly dropped three others, but he couldn’t shake Aguirre or Carson’s Steve Gonzalez.

Aguirre surged on the final hill of the three-mile course. Gastelum reached the finish four seconds behind Aguirre, in 15:20, lost consciousness shortly after the race and was treated by paramedics for dehydration.

Hunter pulled away from North Hollywood’s Rosa Melendez with 600 yards left and the girls’ race by 14 seconds.