PREP CROSS-COUNTRY SOUTHERN SECTION PRELIMS : Skieresz Sets Winning Pace for Agoura

On a day when most of the top runners ran just hard enough to qualify, Agoura High sophomore Amy Skieresz stood out Saturday in the Southern Section cross-country preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College.

Skieresz, who raced to the Ventura County and Marmonte League titles last week, recorded the fastest girls’ time of the day when she clocked a personal best of 17 minutes 54 seconds over the three-mile course.

Led by the one-three-four finish of Skieresz, junior Kay Nekota (18:51) and senior Kristie Camp (19:22), Agoura easily won its Division I-AA heat with 26 points. Long Beach Wilson (59) placed second and Dana Hills (82) finished third.

The top three teams in each heat and the top four individuals among the first eight finishers not on a qualifying team advanced to this week’s championships.

Skieresz’s time was three seconds faster than her second-place mark in the Mt. SAC invitational last month, although it was obvious that she was holding back for the championships. “She was stressed out (at the Mt. SAC invitational),” Agoura Coach Bill Duley said. “Today, she ran easy. It just goes to show you what she’s capable of if she relaxes.”

Agoura’s team time (the total of its top five scoring runners) of 1:37:10 was the fastest girls’ time of the day and gave the Chargers an advantage of nearly three minutes over Peninsula, which won the other I-AA heat. But Duley was wary of casting his team in the role of favorite for Saturday’s meet. “(Peninsula) didn’t run very well at the prelims last year, and they came very close to beating us in the finals,” he said. “They always worry me.”

Peninsula, which finished second to Agoura in the past two state Division I championships, has beaten the Chargers twice this season.

Thousand Oaks and Hart, the No. 1- and 2-ranked boys’ teams in the Southern Section Division I, posted easy wins in their Division I-A heats to set up a showdown.

Thousand Oaks, led by the second- and third-place finishes of sophomore Jeff Fischer (15:45) and junior Chadd Aldrich (16:05), won the second heat with 34 points, followed by Rowland and Channel League champion Buena, each of which scored 90.

Hart, the two-time defending state Division I champion, won its heat with 39 points as sophomore Brett Strahan finished third in 15:55 and senior Keith Grossman placed sixth in 16:03.

Although Thousand Oaks will be a slight favorite in the championships, the Lancers again might be without a healthy Brandon Del Campo. The junior has been Thousand Oaks’ No. 1 runner for most of the season, but he dropped out of the Ventura County championships Nov. 2 because of an inflamed tendon in his left knee, and he finished a dismal 66th Saturday after fading midway through the race because of a tender left Achilles’ tendon.

Seniors Margarito Casillas of Hoover and Ryan Wilson of Agoura remained undefeated with easy wins. Casillas timed 15:27 in the second heat of Division I-AA, and Wilson clocked 15:35 to win the first heat of Division II-AA.