HIGH SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY : STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS : Agoura Girls, Hart Boys Favored to Defend Titles

The Agoura High girls and the Newhall Hart boys will be favored to defend their Division I cross-country titles at the State championships on Saturday at Woodward Park.

Agoura won its fifth consecutive title and Hart won its third in a row in the Southern Section championships at Mt. San Antonio College last Saturday. Both teams are ranked No. 1 in the nation by The Harrier Magazine.

Agoura is led by sophomore Kay Nekota, who won the Division I title last Saturday, and freshman Amy Skieresz. Palos Verdes Peninsula, which finished second to Agoura in the Southern Section championships and the Mt. SAC Invitational, figures to be Agoura’s closest challenger.

Hart’s last loss was to Madera of the Central Section in last year’s Mt. SAC Invitational. The Indians, the nine-time Foothill League champions, defeated Madera to win the State championship and have beaten Madera, ranked third nationally, twice this season.

A Southern Section team has won a boys’ large school title at the state championships since the meet’s inception in 1987.

Milena Glusac of Fallbrook is the overwhelming favorite to win the girls’ title. Glusac, who ran the second-fastest time ever at Mt. SAC in October, won the San Diego Section championships by 44 seconds and is undefeated this season.

Angel Martinez of San Gabriel High, the nation’s top returning 3,200-meter runner, and Margarito Casillas of Glendale Hoover are among the contenders for the boys’ title. Martinez posted the fastest time at the Southern Section finals to win the Division I race.

San Pasqual of Escondido, which last year became the first school to win boys’ and girls’ state titles in the same season, could repeat in Division II. The teams are both ranked fourth nationally.

San Pasqual’s Nazario Romero, Agoura’s Ryan Wilson and Daniel Das Neves of La Mesa Helix, the state 1,600-meter champion, will race for the individual title. Shelley Taylor of Huntington Beach Edison is favored in the girls’ race.

Jeff Wilson of Newbury Park is the defending State Division III champion. Fillmore and Ojai Nordhoff are the top-ranked teams in the state in Division IV.