HIGH SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY / SOUTHERN SECTION CHAMPIONSHIPS : High Finish Would Say It All for Arce

The date was Oct. 9.

The place was Crescenta Valley Park.

The meet was the Kenny Staub cross-country invitational where Antonio Arce of Palmdale High had just swooped past John Greene of Agoura in the final 100 meters of the three-mile race to win the Division I title.

As a reporter interviewed Arce afterward, several of his teammates squeezed in around him, seemingly more eager to answer the questions than the quiet junior himself.

When the interview ended, a couple of Palmdale runners continued to talk excitedly about the performance of their teammate, who is content to let his running do the talking most of the time.

“Antonio is not a real vocal guy,” Palmdale Coach Rob Fairley said. “He prefers to lead by actions rather than words, but he will speak up if he feels like something needs to be said.”

When that happens, it’s usually at a Palmdale practice where the horseplay among a team comprised primarily of juniors and sophomores has been known to get out of hand.

“Sometimes they horse around so much that you have to say something,” Arce said. “When I get out there to work out, it’s serious. I want to get down to business. Time to play can come later.”

Running is not the only endeavor that Arce (pronounced R- Say ) takes seriously.

He is one B away from having straight A’s in high school and he wants to major in computer science in college.

“I definitely want to go to a four-year university,” he said. “I’m starting to look into taking some PSAT tests this year so I can do well on the SAT next year. Hopefully, I can earn a scholarship, too.”

If Arce continues to improve like he has this year, an athletic scholarship offer could be forthcoming.

Born in Mexico City and reared in Northridge, Arce has been one of the most consistent runners in the state this season and will be shooting for a top-three finish in the Division I race in today’s Southern Section championships at Mt. San Antonio College.

After being Palmdale’s No. 2 runner as a sophomore, Arce opened this season with a bang, finishing second behind Brett Strahan of Hart in the junior race of the Seaside Invitational in Ventura on Sept. 11.

Since then, he has finished fourth at Stanford, first at Staub, fifth in the team sweepstakes race of the Mt. SAC Invitational, and second--behind Strahan--in a Division I-A heat at last week’s section preliminaries.

“Right now, I’m pretty much where I want to be,” Arce said. “My goal is to finish in the top three (in the section championships) and if I do that, I think a top-three finish in the state meet is also possible because most of the top runners are in the Southern Section.”

Arce will be one of 152 runners from 21 schools in the region who will compete in today’s meet.

The following is a brief look at the races in which area runners are expected to figure prominently:

Boys’ Division I--Thousand Oaks, the No. 5-ranked team in the nation by Harrier magazine, is heavily favored to win its second consecutive title. The Lancers’ team time--the cumulative time of a team’s top five runners--of 79 minutes 15 seconds at the preliminaries was nearly two minutes faster than their closest competitor, Santa Ana.

Hart, Palmdale, Arroyo Grande and Peninsula are expected to battle for third.

Jaime Martinez of Orange, who finished 10th in last year’s Kinney national championships, and Strahan of Hart are expected to duke it out for the individual title with Arce, Eric Dunn of Arroyo Grande and Brandon Del Campo of Thousand Oaks waiting in the wings should the favorites falter.

Girls’ Division I--Agoura is gunning for its fourth consecutive section title at this level and its seventh in a row overall.

Junior Amy Skieresz, the defending champion, and senior Kay Nekota could give the Chargers a 1-2 finish.

Peninsula is regarded as the team with the best chance to upend Agoura, but the Panthers might lack the firepower up front to do so.

Surprising Thousand Oaks, which had the fastest team time (99:04) in the preliminaries, Irvine, Esperanza and Saugus are expected to battle for third place.

Boys’ Division II--Mike Moreno of Katella is one of the favorites to win the individual title and should lead the Knights to their second consecutive team championship.

His toughest competition should come from John Greene of Agoura and Eleazar Hernandez of Camarillo, whose teams are expected to contend for a position among the top four.

Boys’ Division III--St. Francis was the top-ranked team in the section at the end of the regular season, but Nordhoff moved into the favorite’s role after running a team time of 82:47 in the preliminaries.

This could the closest race of the meet, as Nordhoff, San Marino (team time of 83:27), Santa Margarita (83:44) and St. Francis (83:48) all appear capable of winning.

The top four teams in each race and the top five individuals not on a qualifying team will advance to the state championships on Nov. 27 in Fresno.

The meet will start at 8 a.m. with the girls’ Division I race.