Even Wrong Turns Failed to Slow Garritson’s Pace

If you didn’t know what she looked like, it was always pretty easy to figure out who Buena Park’s Carrie Garritson was by the time the race ended; she was usually the winner.

In fact, Garritson, The Times Orange County girls’ cross-country athlete of the year, ran her entire senior season without losing to an athlete from the county.

Elite company has been all Garritson has kept since she burst onto the prep distance running scene four years ago. In the last 15 years, only two girls--Kira Jorgensen (Rancho Buena Vista High) and Deena Drossin (Agoura)--have achieved what Garritson did this month: winning membership to her fourth Foot Locker National championships team.

Garritson breezed through her first race of the season, the Laguna Hills Invitational, to win in the day’s fastest time (17 minutes 49 seconds), despite making a wrong turn two miles into the race.

The next weekend at the Woodbridge Invitational, Garritson again won, sharing the county’s fastest time honors with Esperanza junior Carrie Caulkins in 18:02, despite making another wrong turn.

Garritson solidified her title as one of the nation’s finest a few weeks later, when she won the Orange County Championships race by an unprecedented 26 seconds over runner-up Kim Nelson of Canyon, the defending champion.

A victory at the Mt. San Antonio Invitational in the individual sweepstakes competition primed Garritson for a Southern Section Division II title, as she again posted the fastest time by any county athlete (18:11).

The State championships in Fresno brought Garritson even more acclaim, as she won her second individual title in three years. She ran the three-mile course in 18:04, putting a 10-second margin between herself and the rest of the Division II field.

The next weekend, however, Garritson accomplished the feat that will put the soft-spoken runner’s name into the record books.

Racing on the same Woodward Park course where she had won the State title the previous weekend, Garritson finished third in the Foot Locker West Regional in 17:53. The finish won her a spot on her fourth national championships team.

The fast pace of the national meet, which took place in San Diego last Saturday, put all but two runners out of the competition at the one-mile junction. Garritson struggled and finished 17th overall. Her best finish in her four national races was sixth in 1991, when she competed as a sophomore for Sunny Hills.