SOUTHERN SECTION CROSS-COUNTRY PRELIMINARIES : Teams Set Up Interesting Section Final

You could go half mad trying to interpret the results of the Southern Section cross-country preliminaries Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.

For instance:

--Is the Ocean View girls’ team setting up a major upset of Edison, No. 1-ranked in Orange County and No. 6 nationally?

Each won its Division II-AA heat with 29 points, and each put four runners in the top eight. Was Edison simply on cruise control? Was Ocean View running as hard as it can?

--Will this be the season that Kim Nelson of Canyon proves she’s far and away the county’s top individual?

--Can anyone defeat the Katella boys’ team? Can Santa Maria Righetti or Villa Park come up to knock off the Knights, top-ranked in the county?

The answers will all come at the sections finals next Saturday at Mt. SAC. But everything was open to debate at Saturday’s meet, which settled little definitively.

However, the Edison girls and the Katella boys showed why they were top-ranked in the county and why they might win section titles next week.

Led by sophomores Elyse Homberger and Jennifer Formosa, Edison rolled to an easy victory over Claremont in its heat.

“I felt relaxed,” said Homberger, who finished the hilly, three-mile course in 19 minutes 34 seconds. “It was an easy race. We were instructed not to go with the leader.”

So the Chargers let Laura Monson of Claremont get away for a 36-second victory over Homberger. Jennifer Formosa was third, also in 19:34; Jeannie Formosa was sixth in 20:02; Janna Evans was eighth in 20:12, and Janndee Evans was 10th in 20:37.

Ocean View won its heat over Corona (second with 65 points) and Canyon (third with 83).

Nelson was the individual winner in 18:48, the fastest time for a county girl. Ocean View’s Taryn Lawson was fourth in 19:39, with Christie Engesser fifth in 19:47, Christy Bradshaw sixth in 19:48 and Melissa Johnson seventh in 19:50.

No county team was as dominating Katella, which scored only 24 points in defeating La Crescenta Crescenta Valley (63) and La Puente Bishop Amat (82).

For only the second time this season, Katella’s Mike Moreno defeated teammate Mike Love. Moreno’s winning time was 15:42. Love ran 15:58 with Delfino Resendiz third in 16:16.

Meet Notes

Other noteworthy boys’ qualifiers included: Newport Harbor, second-ranked in Orange County, in Division III-A; third-ranked La Habra in Division III-AA and fourth-ranked Dana Hills in Division I-AA.

Jim Cera of Upland ran 15:24--the fastest time of the day. Jaime Martinez of Orange had the county’s fastest time, running 15:33.

Noteworthy girls’ qualifiers included: second-ranked Corona del Mar in Division III-A; third-ranked Laguna Hills in Division III-AA, and fourth-ranked Irvine in Division I-A. The Vaqueros, led by Kelly Roda’s victory in 19:06, scored only 20 points in defeating second-place El Toro (78) and third-place Newhall Hart (85).

Amy Skieresz of Agoura had the fastest girls’ time of the day, winning a Division I-AA heat in 17:54.