Taft, Belmont Set Stage for Cross-Country Run-In

Taft and Belmont highs laid the groundwork Thursday in the City Section cross-country preliminaries for a rematch of last year’s championship race.

Defending boys’ champion Taft and runner-up Belmont easily won their heats at Pierce College and will meet for the fifth time this season--in the City final Nov. 17 at Pierce.

The Toreadors totaled 42 points to outdistance Venice (63) and Bell (97). Roosevelt (121) and Monroe (126) were fourth and fifth. The top five teams and top 15 individuals in each of the two heats advanced to the City final.

Belmont scored 21 points to handily beat Garfield (96), San Pedro (116), Manual Arts (133) and Birmingham (151).

“It’s going to be a real dogfight,” Taft Coach Mel Hein said. “We’re going to have to get us all in the (15-minute range) if we’re going to beat Belmont.

“Belmont is a little stronger than we are right now, but we’re not going to concede anything to them.”

The Sentinels, who won seven consecutive City championships from 1982-88 before Taft prevailed, 52-58, last year, have beaten the Toreadors in three of four meets this season.

After losing to Taft in a preseason triangular meet, Belmont beat the Toreadors in the Bell-Jeff, Santa Clarita and Mt. San Antonio College invitationals. Success aside, Belmont Coach Gordon Weisenberger is looking for a close race.

“We’re not taking them for granted,” he said of Taft. “They have us worried. I think it will boil down to whoever is on that day.”

Weisenberger, who has five of his seven runners back from last year’s team, stressed that his Sentinels are not bent on revenge.

“We just want to start the new decade on the right foot,” Weisenberger said of bringing the perpetual trophy back to Belmont.

Brian Godsey of Taft toured the three-mile course at Pierce in a personal-best 15 minutes 15 seconds, placing second behind Venice’s Ben Mesfen (15:09). The Toreadors placed five runners among the top 20.

Steve Gonzales of Carson won the other heat in 15:09.

Belmont established itself as the odds-on favorite for its second consecutive girls’ City title by winning its race with a perfect 15 points. The Sentinels placed seven runners among the top 10 to beat El Camino Real (105), Narbonne (131), Taft (134) and Birmingham (140).

Jennie Armenta of Kennedy had the fastest girls’ time of the day by 20 seconds, clocking 19:12. University’s Robin Snowbeck, who transferred this year from Palisades, won the other heat in 19:32.

San Pedro, runner-up last year, won the other heat with 63 points. Garfield (97), Huntington Park (124), Marshall (130) and Chatsworth (175) finished second through fifth.