After Setbacks, Drossin Back in Top Form

Injuries constantly badgered Deena Drossin throughout the first half of her sophomore cross-country season at Agoura High and she was sidelined for the season-opening race in September because of shin splints.

But the Charger junior has rebounded well and recovered her form of two years ago.

In fact, Drossin’s postseason performances this year mirrored those of her freshman season.

She claimed the Frontier League title, her third.

Won the Southern Section 2-A Division championship.

Won the state Division I title.

Placed second in the Kinney West regional championships, qualifying for the national meet in San Diego on Saturday.

Drossin sustained stretched arches in both feet before her sophomore year and was forced to sit out until the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational in late October.

“It was pretty depressing,” she said. “I wasn’t a freshman anymore and I wanted to do well. The doctor said to stay off them, and, if I ran on my stretched arches, it would end my running career permanently.”

After finishing second in the 2-A final, third in the state Division I championship and fifth in the West regional, the focused Charger set her preseason goals for 1989.

“I was really determined this year to do well,” Drossin said.

Drossin, however, was disappointed with her second-place effort in the West regional meet Saturday.

“I really wanted to go out and win it,” said Drossin, who timed 17 minutes, 40 seconds over the 5,000-meter (3.1-mile) Woodward Park course in Fresno.

Sarah Schwald of Mead High in Spokane, Wash., clocked 17:14 to win the West region title. Drossin recorded a Division I record of 17:27 in the state championships.

Drossin said that she had concentrated on beating Livermore junior Becky Spies, who she had gunned down a week earlier for the state Division I title, and inadvertently allowed Schwald to pull away. Spies finished third in 17:55.

Drossin will have another chance at Schwald when the two meet in the Kinney national championship Saturday at Balboa Park in San Diego.

Drossin, who has finished 11th and 17th in the national meet the past two years, has a different attitude toward Saturday’s race.

“In the past, being a freshman and sophomore, she just went (to nationals) to have fun,” Agoura Coach Bill Duley said. “Now she’s going to be competitive.”

Drossin’s goal?

“I’m hoping to place in the top five,” she said.