Camarillo, Agoura in Pursuit of State Titles

The Camarillo High boys’ and the Agoura High girls’ cross-country teams will hunt for their first Division I state titles, and Agoura’s Bryan Dameworth will vie for his third consecutive Division I title Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.

After finishing fourth in the state meet in 1987 and ‘88, the top-ranked Scorpions will attempt to justify their No. 1 ranking in the state. The Charger girls’ team, also ranked No. 1, has finished second the past two years to Palos Verdes.

Dameworth relied on strong finishes to defeat Goshu Tadese of San Diego Crawford in 1987 and Mike Williamson of Thousand Oaks last year.

The Charger senior posted the fastest time in four years on the three-mile course at Mt. San Antonio College--a clocking of 14 minutes, 36 seconds--en route to the 2-A title last weekend.

Concord De La Salle, Agoura, Canyon and Saddleback, ranked second through fifth in the state, finished in that order behind Camarillo in the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational. The Scorpions outdistanced their Northern California rival, 65-117

Canyon, however, will not compete in the state meet because the Cowboys did not finish in the top three in the 4-A final.

Camarillo ran away with the Southern Section 4-A Division title at Mt. SAC last week. The Agoura girls did likewise in claiming their third consecutive 2-A title.

Hart and Agoura, the 3-A and 2-A champions, also will compete in the Division I boys’ championship along with Canyon’s Dave Hartman (the 4-A champion) and Dan Berkeland (fifth) and Hoover’s Eliazar Herrera (third), all of whom qualified as individuals. Jeannie Rothman of Westlake will run in the Division I girls’ final.

At the Division III level, the second-ranked L. A. Baptist’s girls’ team, runner-up in the 1-A, again will compete against league-rival and fifth-ranked Maranatha, the 1-A champion.

John Castner of Oak Park and Bell-Jeff’s Mike Morgan, Bob Heath and Jose Diaz will compete in the Division III boys’ race.