HIGH SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY / SEASIDE INVITATIONAL : Blankenship Downgrades No. 1 Hart’s Victory

Chalk one up to the burden of high expectations.

The Hart High boys’ cross-country team rolled to victories in the senior and sophomore races at the Seaside Invitational at San Buenaventura State Beach on Saturday, yet Coach Gene Blankenship said the Indians did not perform as well as expected.

Such is the case when a team that carries a No. 1 national ranking turns in a solid but unspectacular performance.

Seven Hart runners, led by senior Keith Grossman with a clocking of 15 minutes 1 second, timed 15:48 or faster over the flat three-mile course along beach bicycle paths. That paled in comparison to last year when 12 Hart runners broke 16:00 in a winning effort.

“We were coming off two weeks of altitude training last year,” Blankenship said. “Because of that, I think we were ready to run a little bit faster at the start of the season. This summer, we never trained above 1,000 feet (in elevation).”

Hart, the two-time defending state Division I champion, conducted its annual two-week training camp in Eugene, Ore., this summer after spending two weeks in the rarefied air of the Colorado Rockies last year.

“It’ll be interesting to see what happens the rest of the year,” Blankenship said. “Last year, we started off great here and had a hard time equaling that performance the rest of the year. This year, we’re slower here, and it wasn’t by design, but perhaps it will work out for the best in the long run.”

Senior Maribella Aparicio of Fillmore set a course record of 17:03 to win the girls’ junior-senior race, and Channel Islands edged Buena for the team title, 107-112.

Grossman, who finished fourth in the state Division I championships as a junior, led for most of the race before being overtaken by Jared Overton (14:56) of Newport Harbor in the final 100 meters.

Tommy Givens of Hart was third in 15:09 and teammate Paul De La Cerda finished seventh in 15:25.

Hart’s Brett Strahan timed 15:33 to win the sophomore race, despite taking a wrong turn that cost him about 10 seconds, and teammates Jose Erazo and Gavin Klinger each timed 15:40 to place fifth and seventh in the junior race.

Mebraton Keflezighi of San Diego High won the junior race in 14:41, the fastest time of the meet. Jon Bishop of Canyon finished second in 15:00 and Brandon Del Campo of Thousand Oaks took third in 15:17.

Keflezighi, an Ethiopian, timed 4:36 at the one-mile mark and 9:41 at two miles. In comparison, Grossman led the senior race in 4:48 and 9:56.

Aparicio is regarded as one of the nation’s top female high school runners after finishing seventh in last year’s Kinney national championships.

She backed up her reputation by breaking away from Claremont’s Laura Monson after one mile (5:45) on her way to a 39-second victory.

Aparicio broke the course record of 17:11 set by Agoura’s Deena Drossin in 1990. Drossin was an NCAA Division I All-American in the 5,000 meters as an Arkansas freshman this year.

“I wanted to run under 17:20 coming in, so I’m happy with my time,” Aparicio said. “Stacey (Auer of Thousand Oaks) won last year in something like 17:14, so I wanted to run faster than that.”

Auer finished third in 18:23 on Saturday, followed by junior Gabriela Rodriguez of Oxnard (18:33).