Peninsula Finishes Second in Division I Cross-Country Meet

Jamie Artzner would have preferred to have won, but the junior cross-country runner was not ashamed of Peninsula High’s second-place finish in the Southern Section final Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College.

Peninsula finished second to Agoura, a team it defeated twice during the season.

On Saturday, Mehlberg and Artzner finished fourth and 10th in 18 minutes 31 seconds and 18:50 over the hilly, three-mile course in the Division I race.

But Agoura, the two-time defending State champion, placed four runners among the top 13 to defeat Peninsula, 42-56, and win its sixth consecutive section title.

Peninsula finished second to Agoura at the 1991 State meet and section finals. Irvine was third with 87 points and Long Beach Wilson fourth with 144.

“We can’t say we didn’t do well just because we didn’t get first place,” Artzner said. “(Agoura) really earned it. They were really on and each one of their runners ran great.”

Especially Amy Skieresz.

The Agoura sophomore set a Southern Section class record of 17:24, finishing 51 seconds ahead of runner-up Erica Sumi of Long Beach Wilson.

Agoura’s five scoring runners recorded either personal or season bests on the Mt. SAC course.

Peninsula also gave its best effort. Julie Meyers (19:09) Mary Blake (19:16), Alisa Scudamore (19:32) finished 13th, 14th and 17th.

The Panthers’ team time of 95:28--the cumulative time of its five scoring runners--was nearly two minutes under their seasonal best of 97:14 in winning last month’s Mt. SAC Invitational.

Agoura’s team time of 93:01, though, was the second fastest ever by a Southern Section team.

“I really thought we could beat them, but Agoura really came through,” Mehlberg said.

The top four teams in each of the four divisions, and the top five individuals not on a qualifying team advanced to Saturday’s State championships at Woodward Park in Fresno.

“We’re not discouraged,” Artzner said. “We’ll get them at State.”

In the boys’ Division I race, Dan Minami placed seventh and Ken Goodrich was 13th in 15:59 to help Peninsula to a third-place finish with 113 points and its second consecutive berth to the State championships.

Thousand Oaks’ Jeremy Fischer and Kevin Marsden were sixth and eighth as the Lancers won their fourth title since 1980 with 53 points. Two-time defending State champion Newhall Hart was second (104).