Focus Turns to Individuals in Cross-Country Regionals

With championship cross-country meets involving team competition over, many of the region’s top high school runners will turn their attention to individual accomplishments in today’s Foot Locker West regionals at Fresno’s Woodward Park.

Jeff Fischer of Thousand Oaks High and Kay Nekota of Agoura head the list of boys’ and girls’ competitors from the region who will return to the site of last week’s state championships.

Fischer placed third in the Division I race of the state meet with a time of 15 minutes 26 seconds over the 5,000-meter course. However, he may not run because of a pulled muscle in his rib cage sustained playing basketball Tuesday.

If the Lancer junior does run, he probably will have to lower his time by 10 to 15 seconds to advance to the national championships in San Diego on Dec. 11.

The top eight finishers in each of the boys’ and girls’ races will qualify for the national meet at Morley Field.

Camarillo junior Eleazar Hernandez, who placed third in the state Division II championships with a time of 15:27, is another local runner who has an outside chance at qualifying for nationals.

The others are Brandon Del Campo (15:30 in state) and Kevin Marsden (15:30) of Thousand Oaks, Antonio Arce (15:35) of Palmdale, John Greene (15:38) of Agoura and Javier Ramirez (15:38) of Nordhoff.

Hart’s Brett Strahan also could contend for a top-eight finish if he’s recovered from a sinus infection which limited him to a 21st-place finish in the state Division I championships.

“Deep down, (Brett) wants to run,” Hart Coach Larry David said. “He’s off the antibiotics so he’s definitely feeling better, but he’s being very cautious. He wants to make sure he feels 100%.”

With that in mind, Strahan will wait until shortly before the race before deciding.

Things are more definite in the girls’ meet. Agoura junior Amy Skieresz will not run, but teammate Nekota will.

Skieresz won the state Division I title last week and would have been a favorite in the West regionals, but she said she needed a break after battling an ear infection and flu this season.

Nekota, a senior, has finished among the top five in her division in each of the last four state meets, but she has never qualified for the national championships.