HIGH SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY / VENTURA COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS : Buena Celebrates Benchmark Win

The times had not yet been recorded and the scores had not yet been tallied. The runners were even still lined up in the finish chute.

But that didn’t stop the celebration from starting.

Unheralded and unsung before the Ventura County cross-country championships Friday at Lake Casitas, the Buena High boys’ team surprised everyone but itself by stunning the county’s cross-country powers and becoming the first Channel League team to win the boys’ varsity championship.

Sweat dripping and bent over from exhaustion, Buena runners Dave Guenther and Steve Hails managed to extend their arms over their heads in victory after Bulldog girls’ Coach Steve Blum and boys’ Coach Tom King exchanged high-fives with runners still in the finish chute.

“We’re ecstatic,” King said later. Since the meet’s inception in 1976, a Marmonte League team had claimed the boys’ varsity title.

Buena’s win was about the only deviation from the norm. The Agoura girls’ team, ranked second nationally, claimed its fifth consecutive county championship and Newbury Park’s Jeff Wilson defended his title in a runaway.

Wilson surged away from Agoura’s Ryan Wilson with about a mile left to win in 14 minutes 49 seconds. Ryan Wilson, who has been struggling with flu symptoms for about a month, faded to third in 15:22. Channel Islands’ Fernando Mendoza was second in 15:12.

Five Buena runners placed among the top 21 finishers to total 66 points and handily defeat Nordhoff (103). Thousand Oaks (132), Agoura (135), Camarillo (143), Oak Park (145), Channel Islands (153) and Newbury Park (160) placed third through eighth.

All except Buena are ranked among the top nine in their respective state division polls.

Buena squeaked into the top 10 in the Southern Section Division I poll in October but slipped out after a week. Rankings aside, the Bulldogs believe they are comparable to almost any Division I school.

“We basically knew how good we were, we just needed to prove it,” said Guenther, who finished seventh in 15:51.

After about a mile, however, it looked as if Buena wouldn’t place among the top five.

“I thought we were going to lose because we had five Agoura guys in front of us and I was (Buena’s) lead runner at the time,” said Hails, who placed ninth in 15:55.

The Agoura girls were running 1-2-3-4 after a mile (5:40) before settling with five finishers among the top 12. The Chargers totaled 34 points to the 122 scored by runner-up Fillmore, the top-ranked girls’ team in the state Division IV.

Maribella Aparicio of Fillmore paced the field with a first-place finish in 17:27.

For Agoura, sophomore Kay Nekota finished second in 17:57 and Laura Hayward was third in 18:06; Kristie Camp (18:24) and freshman Amy Skieresz (18:30) placed eighth and ninth.

“Today, our goal was to run pack-running as long as we could in the race,” Agoura Coach Bill Duley said of his team’s pacing tactic.