HIGH SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY : Glusac Sets Course Record; San Pasqual’s Romero 2nd

Although plagued by injuries this season, Fallbrook’s Milena Glusac didn’t let the adverse conditions at Saturday’s Mt. San Antonio College Cross-Country Invitational rain on her parade.

Glusac, despite mud and bad footing left from overnight rains, set a course record on the hilly 3-mile layout of 17 minutes 15 seconds in the team sweepstakes race. Glusac, a Fallbrook senior who won the San Diego Section Division I title last year, slipped past the record 17:16 shared by Palos Verdes’ Kirsten O’Hara (1983) and Agoura’s Deena Drossin (1990).

She was 42 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor.

Glusac wasn’t the only runner in the hunt for an individual title.

Margarito Casillas of Glendale Hoover pulled away from San Pasqual’s Nazario Romero over the final 800 meters to win the boys’ individual sweepstakes race. Casillas clocked 15:11; Romero came in at 15:14.

San Pasqual’s boys finished sixth in the race with 191 points and a combined elapsed time of 83:51. The winner was Rowland, which had 138 points and a time of 83:04.

Despite Glusac’s record run, Fallbrook managed to finish just 14th in the 16-team race, finishing with 302 points.

Mt. Carmel, ranked fourth in the state, finished seventh with 183 points and a combined team time of 100:57.

Palos Verdes Peninsula High reaffirmed itself as the top team in the state in the girls’ sweepstakes race. Jamie Artzner and Molly Mehlberg placed sixth and ninth in 18:49 and 19:02 as Peninsula won with 90 points. Huntington Beach Edison, the state Division II champion, and Agoura were second and third with 102 and 108 points. It was the Peninsula’s second victory over Agoura this season.

In the individual sweepstakes race, Ocean View won with 86 points (99:12). San Pasqual was ninth with 226 points (108:39).

Brandon Del Campo finished fourth in 15 minutes 27 seconds over the hilly, three-mile course, and Thousand Oaks placed three runners among the top 15 to win the boys’ team sweepstakes title with 98 points.

Madera (114) and Anaheim Katella (121) were second and third. Newhall Hart, the two-time State Division I champion that was expected to challenge the team time record, suffered its first loss in two seasons, placing fourth with 133 points.

“We thought it would come down to a tiebreaker (with Hart),” Del Campo said. “No one could really tell. All week, we were thinking if someone places here and someone places there, what we would have to do to win or displace their runners. We thought of everything.”

Del Campo, though, did not expect that sophomore Jeff Fischer (11th, 15:38) would place ahead of Hart’s No. 1 runner, Brett Strahan, who finished 13th in 15:52; and another sophomore, Kevin Marsden, would finish only three seconds behind Fischer.

“I’m kind of shocked,” Del Campo said.

Junior Chadd Aldrich (16:17) and senior Ryan Nugent (16:21) finished 32nd and 36th to round out the Thousand Oaks scoring. Ryan Wilson of Agoura led from the start to post the meet’s fastest time of 15:03. Eric Dunn of Arroyo Grande (15:21) and Jim Cera of Upland (15:26) were second and third.