Erazo Punctuates Sweepstakes Win by Hart at Mt SAC : Cross-country: Disinclined sophomore helps No. 1 Indians edge Madera in meet shortened because of high temperatures.

Jose Erazo, a swift underclassman at Hart High, has this reluctance about running in varsity cross-country races.

The prospect of earning a letterman jacket or a championship patch is often proffered as an inducement for Erazo, who prefers to compete in sophomore races because “he likes to win,” as one teammate put it.

But when freshman Brett Strahan suffered a minor head injury after practice Thursday, Erazo was called up for the Mt. San Antonio College invitational Saturday at Mt. SAC.

And his performance was letter-perfect.

Erazo timed 16 minutes 25 seconds over the hilly, three-mile course and finished 19th--fourth for Hart--in the boys’ team sweepstakes race to help Hart edge Madera, 77-88, in a meet shortened by the Los Angeles County Fire Department because of high temperatures and dirty air.

The final four races, two of which were varsity competitions, were canceled when the first-aid station at Mt. SAC became deluged with dehydrated runners, several of whom were taken to hospitals for treatment.

“I lost count,” Fire Capt. Sam Woosley said of the number of runners who needed medical attention. “It was mainly heat exhaustion and a few cases of heat stroke.”

A first-stage smog alert was called for the area by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and by mid-afternoon temperatures were in the high 90s.

Crews from four fire trucks and six ambulances scrambled around the Mt. SAC practice football field, tending to fallen runners. However, nothing could save Madera from the nation’s top-ranked boys’ team.

Keith Grossman finished fourth in 15:53 and Paul De La Cerda was 10th in 16:06 as Hart upended Madera, ranked third nationally, for the second time this season.

“He doesn’t like to run varsity races because he likes to win,” Grossman said of Erazo, whose appearance at Mt. SAC was only his second varsity race.

“He says, ‘You guys are too fast. I want to win.’ So I was telling him, ‘Hey, you can get a patch on varsity. If you run sophs you won’t get anything.’ ”

In the Stanford invitational Oct. 5, Hart placed four runners ahead of Madera’s No. 1 man in the Indians’ 50-81 win. On Saturday, the pack was more broken up: Madera’s Eric DeWitt (fifth in 15:59) and Palo Duarte (sixth in 16:01) finished between Grossman and De La Cerda. Hart’s next three finishers placed ahead of Madera’s No. 4 and No. 5 runners.

Peninsula (109), Concord De La Salle (186) and Esperanza (208) rounded out the top five teams.

Hoover junior Margarito Casillas won the team sweepstakes race in 15:15 and was followed by Fernando Mendoza (15:20) of Channel Islands and Agoura’s Ryan Wilson (15:43).

Jeff Wilson of Newbury Park posted the fastest time of the day in winning the boys’ individual sweepstakes race in 15:08.

Wilson’s time broke the school record of 15:25 for the Mt. SAC course set by Chris Rice in 1982.

The Agoura girls’ team finished a runner short Saturday when freshman Amy Skieresz dropped out of the team sweepstakes race after about a half-mile because of cold symptoms.

But Agoura, the top-ranked girls’ team nationally, overcame the loss and placed three runners among the top nine. The Chargers scored 70 points in winning their third consecutive Mt. SAC sweepstakes title. Peninsula (100), Edison (109), San Diego Mt. Carmel (159) and Irvine (162) completed the top five.

Kay Nekota paced Agoura with a second-place finish in 18:22. Laura Hayward was fifth in 18:54 and Kristie Camp timed 19:12 for ninth place. Agoura’s No. 4 runner, Allison Kaz, sprinted past eight runners in the final 80 yards to finish 23rd in 20:02.