SOUTHERN SECTION CROSS-COUNTRY : Rule Quirk Puts Ocean View, Edison in State

Leave it to the Southern Section to devise a format in which a cross-country team can win and lose in the same race.

Sure, it sounds weird, but imagine how confused the Edison and Ocean View girls’ teams were Saturday morning at Mt. San Antonio College.

For the record, Edison defeated Ocean View, 42-43, to win the section Division II-AA championship. But Ocean View defeated Edison, 47-48, in the overall division scoring.

Edison walked away with the championship plaque but Ocean View is the section’s No. 1 qualifier for the State meet Saturday at Fresno’s Woodward Park. Edison advanced as the No. 2 team.

How could it happen this way?

Blame it on the section’s watered-down championship meet. In an effort to give more schools a shot at winning a title, the section offers twice as many division championships (eight for boys, eight for girls) as the State does (four for boys, four for girls). And the section’s “A” and “AA” sub-divisions run in the same race, which further clouds the issue.

After Saturday’s race, Ocean View Coach Beth Chilcott spent about 10 minutes trying to explain it to her runners. She might as well have been speaking Latin. “You mean we lost but we won?” a Seahawk runner asked.

Exactly.

In the end, both teams left Mt. SAC happy but confused.

Other races were more easily understood Saturday, though none was as hotly contested as the Edison-Ocean View battle.

The Corona del Mar girls’ team easily won the Division III-A title over Newport Harbor, the Laguna Hills girls’ team defeated El Modena to win the Division III-AA championship and the Irvine girls’ team won the Division I-A title over Esperanza.

Katella and Newport Harbor won boys’ titles in Division II-A and Division III-A.

Mayra Medina of Laguna Hills had the fastest time of the day by an Orange County girl, an 18-minute 16-second clocking on the hilly, three-mile course. Jaime Martinez of Orange had the county’s fastest time for boys, running 15:20.

In all, eight county girls’ teams and five individuals qualified for the State meet. Three boys’ teams and two individuals, including Martinez, also advanced.

“It’s been a great day,” Irvine girls’ Coach Randy Rossi said after the Vaqueros’ victory. “We were really keying on this week. This was when we wanted an explosion.”

With Kelly Roda leading the way, Irvine went on a personal-best binge Saturday.

Roda won the Division I-A race in 18:36 and was fifth overall (there were four finishers from I-AA schools ahead of her). Perhaps no Vaquero improved as much as Erin Livermore, whose Mt. SAC best was 20:10 coming into the meet. Saturday, she dropped to 18:57 and finished sixth in the I-A race.

None of the 16 races was as lopsided as Corona del Mar’s romp through the Division III-A.

Led by the one-two finish of Tracy Clark and Dresden Howell, the Sea Kings scored a meet-low 25 points and seem to be a mortal lock to win the State Division III title. Clark ran 18:37 to Howell’s 19:06.

In the boys’ II-A race, Katella’s Mike Love offered teammate Mike Moreno a few words of advice. “I told him not to get carried away,” Love said.

In the early going, the two Mikes seemed tempted to chase Agoura’s Ryan Wilson, who would win the race by running the fastest time of the day, 14:54. Love and Moreno then settled down, ran a heady race and led Katella to a 30-point victory over La Crescenta Crescenta Valley. Love ran 15:29 to finish second. Moreno’s third-place time was 15:34.

“We’ve been planning for this week for two years now,” Katella Coach Dave Wilson said. “We’ve planned it and charted it out for a peak this week. We hope to carry it over to next week.”

Most planning goes out the window with Edison sophomore Elyse Homberger, who keeps learning by doing in her first season of running.

Saturday, she followed front-runner Kim Nelson of Canyon to Poop-Out Hill, surged past her at the top of the steep incline, then powered away over the final mile.

“In the summer, the kids kept saying that Elyse could be our No. 1 runner, and I thought they meant she would be our No. 1 JV runner,” Edison Coach Kristi Kaufmann said.

Persuaded to come out for the Charger cross-country team by the Formosa twins, Jeannie and Jennifer, Homberger kept the division’s individual title at Edison. Last year, Shelley Taylor won the section and State Division II championships.

“We came into the race with our minds set that we would have a hard, tough race,” Homberger said. “There was more pressure on this race than all the others.”