San Diego Section Teams in Running for Title

There will be a strong San Diego presence at Woodward Park today at the State Cross-Country Championships, though the attention of the Division I race centers on teams from the Central and Southern sections.

Madera High of the Central Section will try to become the first non-Southern Section boys’ team to win the state Division I cross-country championship, and the Agoura girls’ team will try to break its streak of three consecutive runner-up finishes.

Madera and Agoura, the state’s top-ranked boys’ and girls’ teams and ranked third and second, respectively, in the nation by The Harrier magazine, won their section Division I titles last Saturday.

The San Diego Section figures to be nipping at the heels of the Agoura girls, though, as section champion Mt. Carmel bids for its first state title.

Mt. Carmel, known as the Red Wave because all seven of its runners finish within a minute of each other, is ranked second in the state in the Kinney Cross-Country Poll and fourth nationally. Junior Susan Scott won the section title Saturday as six Sundevils finished in the top 10. Only the first five runners for each team score. Mt. Carmel set a large-school section record with 27 points.

The Sundevils--fourth in the state meet last year--were second in the Sweepstakes race at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational.

The Agoura girls, who won at Mt. SAC, will be looking to unseat three-time champion Palos Verdes. The Chargers have already upstaged the Sea Kings three times this season--including the Southern Section Division I final.

Seniors Louie Quintana of Arroyo Grande and Agoura’s Deena Drossin are the individual favorites for the Division I titles. Quintana finished second to three-time titlist Bryan Dameworth of Agoura last season and Drossin has claimed two of the last three championships.

In the boys race, San Diego High School, which upset three-time section champion Poway, will try to foil Madera’s hopes.

Poway’s boys, which had three runners in the top five before falling off in the section finals, is represented in both the boys and the girls races.

Two San Diego Section teams must be considered favorites in the other girls’ races. San Pasqual and La Jolla are ranked No. 1 in the state.

La Jolla, which won the Division II title in 1989 with the third-best score in state meet history (88 points), is competing for the Division III title. The Vikings are led by section champion Julie Schoene, who helped La Jolla win the section final with a near-perfect 17 points. Six runners finished in the top eight.

San Pasqual is competing in Division II and also had six runners finish in the top eight, including second-place Deanna Hadley.

San Diego’s best hope for an individual title is Fallbrook sophomore Milena Glusac. She finished ninth in 1989 in the Division I race, but competes this year in Division II.

In the boys’ races, No. 2 Helix should challenge for the Division II title No. 1 Fair Oaks Del Campo.

In Division I, Newhall Hart, the state’s No. 2 boys’ team, will race Madera for the third time this season after finishing second to Madera in the Stanford and Mt. SAC invitationals.

“I think we can beat Madera,” Hart Coach Gene Blankenship said. “I think we’re the No. 1 team in the state.”

L.A. City Section champion Belmont and runner-up Woodland Hills Taft could contend with Oxnard Channel Islands for a top-five finish.

The new divisional format for the state meet--which categorizes schools by enrollment--also places three of the nation’s fastest girls in different divisions.

Drossin, Becky Spies of Livermore and Jeannie Rothman of Westlake Village Westlake, the top three finishers in the Division I final a year ago, will compete in Divisions I, III and II, respectively, making it possible for each runner to win a state title.