COLLEGE CROSS-COUNTRY / WESTERN STATE CONFERENCE MEET : Glendale Turns Tables on Ventura, Setting Up WSC Title Showdown

The lines have been drawn between the men’s cross-country teams of Glendale and Ventura colleges.

Whichever one wins next month’s Western State Conference finals will almost surely earn the WSC championship.

The stage for the showdown was set Friday at College of the Canyons when Glendale defeated Ventura in the second WSC meet of the season.

The Vaqueros placed second behind Ventura in the first WSC meet last month, but they turned the tables on the Pirates on Friday, placing five runners among the top 13 finishers to total 32 points. Ventura was second with 35 points, followed by Moorpark with 116.

Based on the WSC’s scoring system, Glendale and Ventura are tied for the conference lead with three points each. Moorpark is a distant third with six points.

“The last half-mile was the key for us today,” Glendale Coach Eddie Lopez said. “A lot of our guys outkicked guys in front of them in the last part of the race and that picked up a lot of points for us at the end.”

Ventura, which won the 1989 conference title, appeared to have the race well in hand at the one-mile mark (5:16) as Pirates Roman Morales, Jorge Barajas and Scott Fickerson shared the lead with Glendale’s Sergio Becerril.

Barajas, winner of the first conference meet, Morales and Becerril still shared the lead at two miles (11:28), but Fickerson had begun to fade and Glendale’s other runners were starting to move up.

“I felt real confident about our chances if it came down to a kick,” Lopez said. “We know this course real well, and we’re really good at running down hills.”

That was obvious in the race’s final 400 meters, which are downhill, as each of Glendale’s top five runners passed one or two runners, making up several points overall in the team standings.

Becerril finished second behind Morales with a time of 22 minutes 56 seconds over the four-mile course, and he was followed by teammates Luis Jacobo in third (23:10), Jacques Salberg in sixth (23:27), Ernie Medrano in eighth (23:40) and Mike Smith in 13th (23:57).

Jacobo and Salberg were the keys to the Vaqueros’ win as they had placed 10th and 11th in the first WSC meet.

Although Morales timed 22:45 to win easily for Ventura, Barajas, hampered by a sore right hip, finished fourth (23:20), and Fickerson was only 15th (24:06).

The women’s race was in contrast to the men’s as a Glendale runner (America Rivas) finished first, and Ventura turned back Glendale in the standings, 46-59. Cuesta was third with 72 points, followed by Santa Monica (88) and Bakersfield (98).

Rivas, who finished third in the first WSC meet, trailed Amy Hamilton of Cuesta by almost 15 meters during the early stages of the race, but she was never challenged after storming past her rival at the mile mark (6:05).

Rivas timed 19:38 over the three-mile course, 70 seconds ahead of Hamilton.

Ventura placed five runners in the top 17, led by Isabel Saucedo (third in 20:57), Valerie Aceves (fifth in 21:02), and Melissa Beamlett (seventh in 21:22).

Although the Pirates trail Glendale by a point in the team standings, they can win the WSC title with a victory in the conference finals Nov. 10 at Griffith Park.