No. 1 Hart Outclasses No. 2 Peninsula in Cross-Country

Someone must have overestimated the ability of Peninsula High’s cross-country team when the Southern Section ranked the Panthers second in the recent Division I poll.

Often when No. 1 meets No. 2 in any sport, the contest goes down to the wire.

Such was not the case in the Royal invitational Saturday as top-ranked Hart placed five runners among the top eight en route to a runaway victory in the large-schools division at Moorpark College. Hart had 28 points and Peninsula finished second with 123.

Camarillo (127), Quartz Hill (131) and Channel Islands (140) placed third, fourth and fifth.

Because of the rich cross-country programs at Miraleste, Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills--which merged this fall to form Peninsula--Hart co-Coach Phil De La Cerda expected the Panthers to put up more of a fight.

“When I read some of the stats on Peninsula--their milers and two-milers--I thought these guys are going to be close or they’re going to tear us apart,” De La Cerda said.

On this day, Hart did the ripping.

Paul De La Cerda, the coach’s son, placed third in 15 minutes 58 seconds over the hilly, three-mile course to lead Hart, which placed all seven runners among the top 14. Freshman Brett Strahan, in his first varsity race, was fourth in 16:08. Keith Grossman (16:16), Mike Dukes (16:18) and Gavin Klinger (16:19) finished sixth, seventh and eighth to round out Hart’s scorers.

Jeff Wilson of Newbury Park held off San Marcos’ Todd Tressler for the second time this season and won his third consecutive race.

Wilson, who ran a 4:57 final mile, stretched his lead to about 100 yards over Tressler before finishing in 15:27. Tressler, who placed second to Wilson in the Seaside invitational two weeks ago, timed 15:48.

Stacey Auer of Thousand Oaks bounced back from a sub-par performance in last week’s Woodbridge invitational and won the girls’ large-schools race by 47 seconds, clocking 18:24.

Peninsula won the girls’ title with 37 points. Hart (71), Westlake (144), Peninsula’s B team (154) and Quartz Hill (155) placed second through fifth.

In the small-schools division, Nordhoff’s Jesse Moore ran 16:26 to win the boys’ race and pace the Rangers to victory.

Fillmore’s Maribella Aparicio posted the fastest girls’ time of the day--18:12--to finish 1:05 ahead of teammate Nikki Shaw (19:17). The 1-2 finish helped the Flashes edge La Canada, 42-47, for first place.