PREP CROSS-COUNTRY ALL-COUNTY TEAMS : Love’s Success a Matter of Plotting the Course

Talk about peaking at the right time. Mike Love spent the better part of his high school career aiming to run his best as a senior. And it worked.

Thanks to a great deal of plotting over the past few seasons, Love’s 1992 cross-country season was an overwhelming success. Winning was no accident for Love, The Times Orange County boys’ runner of the year.

Each week was a study in consistency and concentration. Each race was looked at as another step toward the season’s No. 1 goal: A State Division II team championship. And Love was the one counted on to lead Katella to the victory stand.

In the end, the Knights came up short at the State meet. Illness cut their dream short, but along the way, Love made sure no one in Orange County could touch him or the Knights.

“He knew he had a team he had to take care of and lead,” Katella Coach Dave Wilson said. “He did a great job. He’s a very mature competitor. He’s calm, too. He doesn’t get very excited. He keeps his composure all the time.”

It showed.

At the Bronco Invitational Sept. 12 at Cal Poly Pomona, Love finished second behind Upland’s Jim Cera, and the Knights won the team title. At the Woodbridge Invitational a week later, Love was second behind Ryan Wilson of Agoura.

In October, he won the Dana Hills Invitational Seniors Division II race.

Those three meets were mere tuneups for the Orange County championships, however. On a cool, clear October morning in Irvine Park, Love stormed away from his closest challenger, Jaime Martinez of Orange, in the final 800 meters and won in 15 minutes 4 seconds.

Katella easily won the team title over Newport Harbor.

At the Mt. San Antonio Invitational, Love covered the notoriously hilly three-mile course in 15:27, finished fifth and led Katella to a third-place finish in the team sweepstakes race. The only teams ahead of the Knights were Thousand Oaks and Madera, two of the state’s best Division I squads.

A victory in the Empire League final came next for Love; Katella trounced Esperanza for the team title.

A rare loss--to teammate Mike Moreno--followed at the Southern Section preliminaries at Mt. SAC. But at section finals Nov. 14, Love was back on top among county runners, finishing second to Agoura’s Wilson as Katella recorded another easy team victory.

The all-important race was at hand.

“I think it will be fun to run with everybody there,” Love said of the State meet.

When the others should have closed to the tight pack needed to win the State title, illness drove them apart. Love and Moreno ran as well as could be expected, but the Knights faltered and finished third behind San Diego Mission Bay and Agoura. Love finished seventh on the 5,000-meter course at Fresno’s Woodward Park, in 15:40.

One dream was history, but Love had more to accomplish before ending his final high school cross-country season.

Running in the Kinney Western Regional in Fresno a week after the State meet, Love dropped his time to 15:14 and finished sixth.

“I guess I made up for last week,” he told his coach on the ride home.

Said Wilson: “He overwhelmed me.”

Love finished his season with a 26th-place finish at the Kinney final last week in San Diego.

And now, he’ll turn his attention to the track where he was the county’s leading 1,600-meter runner last season, turning in a personal best of 4:14.72.

“I think he’s better on the track,” Wilson said. “I think this year we’ll probably try to go farther in the 3,200.”

It’s likely to be another winning proposition for Love.

All-County Boys’ Cross-Country

FIRST TEAM Runner: Mike Love School: Katella Yr.: Sr. Comment: County champion; led Knights to section Division II-A title. Runner: Brendon Mahon School: La Habra Yr.: Jr. Comment: Finished fourth in State Division III meet. Runner: Jaime Martinez School: Orange Yr.: Jr. Comment: Fastest county runner in late season; fourth at State. Runner: Mike Moreno School: Katella Yr.: Jr. Comment: Third at section finals; sixth at the State meet. Runner: Jared Overton School: Newport Harbor Yr.: Sr. Comment: Helped Sailors win section and State meet titles. Runner: Sky Peterka School: Newport Harbor Yr.: Sr. Comment: Led Sailors with 11th-place finish at State meet. Runner: Delfino Resendiz School: Katella Yr.: Jr. Comment: Finished 10th at section Division II-A final.

SECOND TEAM Runner: Clint Allen School: Dana Hills Yr.: Jr. Comment: Led the Dolphins to fifth-place finish at section finals. Runner: Fred Duran School: Santa Ana Yr.: Jr. Comment: Led Saints to Sunset League title and a State meet berth. Runner: Nathan Elston School: University Yr.: Sr. Comment: Sea View League champion; section finals qualifier. Runner: Ben Flamm School: Huntington Beach Yr.: Sr. Comment: Second at Sunset finals; section finals qualifier. Runner: Shawn Frack School: Esperanza Yr.: Sr. Comment: Fourth at county championships; section finals qualifier. Runner: Matt Huss School: Santa Margarita Yr.: Jr. Comment: Third in tough Sea View League final. Runner: Ryan Wilkinson School: Santa Margarita Yr.: So. Comment: Second at Sea View League final.