Mortensen Outruns Her Aspirations : Cross-country: With modest goals, Thousand Oaks sophomore finishes a surprising 10th in regional championships, almost qualifying for nationals.

So this is what it’s like to be part of the big time.

That’s what Kim Mortensen’s wide-eyed expression seemed to be saying Saturday after the Thousand Oaks High sophomore had finished a surprising 10th in the girls’ race of the Foot Locker West regional cross-country championships at Woodward Park.

As Mortensen fielded reporters’ questions, she often found herself at a loss for words, overwhelmed with the sudden attention.

After all, Thousand Oaks’ state Division I championship boys’ team had garnered most of the attention this season.

“I hadn’t really set any goals coming into the race,” Mortensen said. “Everyone kept telling me to just go out there and run the best race you can, so I guess that’s what I did.”

Mortensen’s time of 18 minutes 21 seconds lopped 23 seconds off her personal best over the 5,000-meter course. It left her a scant three seconds out of eighth place--the final qualifying spot for the national championships Dec. 11 in San Diego--but she didn’t seem disappointed.

“I never expected to be 10th,” Mortensen said. “So just missing nationals is not a big deal to me. I’ve got two more years. I really came in here just hoping for 20th or something close to there.”

Junior Melissa Lucas of Beaverton Jesuit (Ore.) won the race in 17:08.9.

Gabriela Rodriguez of Oxnard turned in a personal best of 18:35 to finish 17th.

Brandon Del Campo of Thousand Oaks lowered his course best to 15:23 in the boys’ race, but that left him in 13th place, five spots and 12 seconds shy of advancing to the national championships.

“The time is the best I’ve run here, but it’s not that great,” Del Campo said. “This just really isn’t my type of course. Anyone who has seen me run knows I run best on hills and this course is relatively flat. It’s more like a track race.”

While eventual winner Matthew Davis (14:53) of Mead High in Spokane, Wash., and Mebrahtom Keflezighi of San Diego shared a 10-meter lead over the field at the one-mile mark (4:34), Del Campo was in 27th.

Although he moved to 19th at two miles, he was never in the hunt for a top-eight finish as was teammate Jeff Fischer.

Fischer was in seventh at two miles, but he lacked the necessary pickup in the final 500 meters and finished 17th in 15:28.

Eleazar Hernandez (18th in 15:28) of Camarillo and Antonio Arce (23rd in 15:35) of Palmdale were among those who were closing fast on Fischer at the end.

Other top-40 finishes went to Javier Ramirez (35th in 15:46) of Nordhoff and Kevin Marsden (37th in 15:48) of Thousand Oaks. Brett Strahan of Hart was in 10th place at the two-mile mark, but dropped out shortly thereafter, apparently still feeling the effects of a sinus infection that limited him to a 21st-place finish in the state Division I championships.