HIGH SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY ROUNDUP : Birmingham Boys Upset Bell

Had it not been for the impressive improvement of some of his runners, Birmingham High Coach Scott King would be gunning for the City Section boys’ frosh/soph cross-country title instead of the varsity championship and a berth in the state meet.

Freshman Jose Torres and sophomore Stuart Pattle were close to being dropped to the frosh/soph ranks when King decided to “give it a shot.”

It turned out to be the shot heard around the City Section as Birmingham scored 54 points to win its heat in the City preliminaries Thursday at Pierce College.

The top five teams and top 15 individuals in each prelim heat advance to the City championships Nov. 16 at Pierce. The top two teams and top five individuals from there advance to the state meet Nov. 30 in Fresno.

Birmingham edged Bell (55 points). Lincoln (91), Marshall (144) and Roosevelt (155) rounded out the top five. Defending City champion Belmont, which had lost to Bell twice during the regular season, won the other heat with 25 points.

“At the beginning of the season Bell was so far ahead of us (in training),” King said. “As the season developed, we started getting better and better and decided to give it a shot.”

As per King’s instructions, junior Alvaro Mejia took the pace out fast, forcing Bell runners to give chase. Mejia timed 5 minutes 8 seconds for the first mile--his fastest split on any course this season--en route to a 15:39 win.

Although after a mile Bell had six runners ahead of the Braves’ No. 2 runner, Torres, the fast pace drained the Eagles, allowing Torres to pass four Bell runners and teammate Leo Quintana to pass three over the final two miles. Torres finished sixth in 16:07 and Quintana 15th in 16:21. Pattle was 20th in 16:42.

In the other heat, Van Nuys’ Avo Artinyan came from behind in the final stretch to slip by Belmont’s David Irias and win in 16:06. Irias timed 16:08. San Fernando finished fourth with 128 points to qualify for the finals.

In one of the girls’ heats, Kennedy’s Jennie Armenta, runner-up in the City final last year, finished second to defending champion Robin Snowbeck of University, 19:20 to 19:38. El Camino Real’s Joanna Potillo (20:04) and Samantha Read (20:15) finished fourth and fifth to lead the Conquistadores (98 points) to a third-place finish behind San Pedro (63) and Birmingham (89).