Seconds Add Up to First : Championships: Maryland girl, second last year, beats Fallbrook’s Milena Glusac by four seconds.

Amanda White made sure she wouldn’t get the same reception at Dulaney High in Cockeysville, Md., as she got after last year’s Kinney Cross-Country Championships. On Saturday the senior improved on her 1991 second-place finish, leading from the start and hitting the tape as national champion.

She finished the five-kilometer race at Balboa Park’s Morley Field in 17 minutes 34.1 seconds, exactly four seconds ahead of second-place Milena Glusac, a Fallbrook senior.

“I felt really disappointed last year because everyone at my school was really counting on me,” White said. “When I got back, it was like, ‘Oh, you lost.’ ”

Glusac’s classmates weren’t nearly so hard on her. They showed up at Morley Field to cheer her on during the race--”Everyone was yelling ‘Milena, Milena,’ ” White said. And they serenaded her with the same chant afterward.

As for Glusac, she wouldn’t use the word disappointed, but neither could she shroud that emotion.

“It was OK,” she said of her effort. “Better than 30th.”

She was alluding to her 1991 showing at the Kinney meet, which she entered among the favorites but struggled to cross the finish line. Shortly after she finished, she was diagnosed as suffering from a glycogen depletion that robbed her muscles of oxygen and sugar. The condition was blamed on a dietary change. When Glusac left home for the Hotel del Coronado, where the runners bunk, she forgot to bring Gatorade.

For a year now she has been queried and bothered about that day, and she seemed relieved that she can put it to rest.

Usually calm during her post-race interviews, Glusac showed a rare charge of emotion when asked if she hated that word, glycogen.

Her eyes opened wide as she came forth with a resounding, “Yes--I think I drank so much Gatorade this week I’m going to float away.”

Feeling strong throughout the race, Glusac was somewhat critical of herself for not challenging White.

“I think I could have run a lot faster,” she said. “I really started picking it up at the end--I could have done that a lot earlier. . . . You always think you could have done better, but today I know I could have.”

Glusac tried reeling in White with about 350 meters remaining. But White, who also trains with the U.S. Olympic swimming team, had too much endurance--even as she looked over her shoulder to find where the competition was.

“I don’t know why I did that,” White said, indicating she makes it a rule to look ahead in races. “It was terrible, but (Glusac) doesn’t run real heavy because she doesn’t carry a whole lot, and I just wanted to make sure she wasn’t sneaking up on me.”

Glusac had trouble adjusting to chasing the leader.

“It was odd,” Glusac said. “Maybe if I had more experience (against national-caliber competition), I could have done a better job.”

White, meanwhile, had no trouble adjusting to the race.

“I felt like I was running back home where I never have anyone with me,” she said. “That’s why I was scared. Before the race everyone was telling me that (Glusac) just tears it up the first mile and blows everybody away.”

This time, White set the pace and caused her followers to huff and puff.

“Now I can go back home,” White said, “go to school and be happy about my finish.”