Thousand Oaks Alarms Coach : High school cross-country: Undefeated, No. 1-ranked Lancers take Mt. SAC Invitational, but by only 17 points. Hart finishes fourth.

Like an alarm clock that jars you out of your sleep, the Thousand Oaks High boys’ cross-country team got a loud wake-up call in Saturday’s Mt. San Antonio College Invitational.

The Lancers won their second consecutive team sweepstakes title, but their performance showed that they have a few chinks in their armor, despite an undefeated record and a No. 1 ranking in the state Division I poll.

“It just wasn’t a real good race for us,” Thousand Oaks Coach Jack Farrell said. “A lot of the kids looked kind of flat.”

The Lancers, led by the sixth-place finish of Brandon Del Campo, totaled 84 points, but their 17-point margin of victory over Santa Ana was their smallest this season in an invitational. Sacramento Jesuit finished third with 126 points, followed by Hart (147) and San Jose Bellarmine (148).

Thousand Oaks’ team time--the cumulative time of its top five runners--of 80 minutes 10 seconds was 32 seconds slower than the Lancers ran last year and Farrell will use that statistic as a motivational tool in the coming weeks.

“I think I’m going to get a lot of good workouts out of these kids over the next few weeks,” Farrell said. “If you’re always real sharp in races, it’s hard to find the impetus to put the pedal to the metal in training, but I don’t think that will be a problem after today.”

Thousand Oaks started the race strong--putting four runners among the top 15 at the mile mark--but faded in the last mile.

Del Campo was in fourth place at two miles, but finished sixth with a time of 15 minutes 31 seconds over the three-mile course. Jeff Fischer (15:50) went from eighth to 10th in the last mile, Kevin Marsden (15:56) slipped from 11th to 12th, and Chadd Aldrich (16:43) dropped from 21st to 37th.

With Aldrich faltering in the hot, dry weather, Todd Disney and Keith O’Doherty finished 23rd and 33rd for the Lancers with times of 16:15 and 16:38.

Brett Strahan of Hart seemed unfazed by the weather, dueling with Matt Farley of Jesuit and Matt Creason of Eureka before finishing second in 15:13.

Farley--the defending state track champion in the 3,200 meters--and Strahan exchanged the lead four times in the final mile before Farley emerged victorious in 15:07.

Antonio Arce of Palmdale placed fifth in 15:26 and John Greene of Agoura finished seventh in 15:32.

In the girls’ team sweepstakes, Kay Nekota of Agoura finished third in 18:42 to lead the Chargers to a fourth-place finish.