Carson’s Harrier Star Has Energy and Desire to Burn

Carson junior Steven Gonzales was so bushed after his third-place finish in the City Section cross-country finals Saturday afternoon that he decided to run a 5,000-meter recreational race the next day.

“I normally tell our kids to rest, but Steve is different,” Coach Bill Mocnik said. “He just gets stronger as the year goes on.”

Gonzales cruised to a 4:38 mile split in that 5K on Sunday but then eased off because it was just a workout. On Saturday, Gonzales will run in the state Division I cross-country championships in Fresno’s Woodward Park. Mocnik thinks Gonzales can run in the top 10.

Gonzales is one of several athletes from the South Bay who will run at the state meet. The Palos Verdes girls are going for their third consecutive state title and second Division I crown.

Junior Israel Pose of Torrance will run in his first state meet after finishing fourth in the boys 4-A Division at Saturday’s Southern Section championships with a time of 15:19 for three miles.

“I hope I can finish in the top 10,” said Pose, a Spanish citizen with aspirations of running for Spain in the 1992 or ’96 Olympic Games. “I’ll try to stick with Bryan Dameworth and those guys and see what happens.”

Dameworth is a senior from Agoura who won last year’s state Division I title in 15:03 on the 5,000-meter course. Pose’s all-time best for 5,000 is 15:36. A 5,000-meter race is equal to 3.1 miles.

Agoura’s girls will try to unseat Palos Verdes as the champions. “We’ve been running in the shadow of Agoura and Woodbridge all year,” Palos Verdes Coach Joe Kelly said. “They’ve been ranked ahead of us in the state rankings, and now we’ll see what happens.”

Agoura won the 2-A Southern Section title with a total team time of 96:17--44 seconds faster than Palos Verdes but in a different race.

Sophomore Maya Muneno and freshman Tami Wilcox led Palos Verdes on Saturday, but cross country is a team sport, and Palos Verdes will need good performances from Cindy Scribe, Joanna Dellagatta, Karen Zareski, Yoko Senga and Margaret Alley, as well as Muneno and Wilcox, to hold off Agoura.

“We will be fresher,” Kelly said. “We won’t do any conditioning like we’ve been doing. I’ll also have the girls cut off on turkey--a little.”

Also traveling to Fresno will be star runner Lucy Diaz and the other San Pedro girls, who had a surprising second place in the City Section finals. Lucrecia Mendoza of Banning will also compete, qualifying with her seventh-place finish in 20:09 for the three-mile course.