Martinez Easily Ran Away From Local Competitors

One of the major concerns every year about this time is what to get the person who has everything.

Although Orange senior Jaime Martinez already has one, the outstanding runner has been selected The Times Orange County boys’ cross-country athlete of the year, matching the award he received last spring in track and field.

Running through the competition almost without breaking a sweat, Martinez turned his back on every other county runner on every possible occasion.

The Woodbridge Invitational was the first of many opportunities the local talent would have to outduel Martinez, but he cruised to victory in 14 minutes 52 seconds, one second behind the fastest time of the day (Agoura’s John Greene) and 13 seconds ahead of the closest county runner (Katella’s Mike Moreno).

Martinez arrived as the favorite at the Orange County Championships two weeks later. The 1992 runner-up didn’t fail to live up to expectations, pulling away from Moreno to win in 15:02.

His seven-second victory margin that day would be the closest any local runner came to Martinez all season.

“We have been waiting 10 years to have a program like we had this year,” Orange Coach Ed Cantu said. “But until we got someone like Jaime, it just didn’t happen.”

An easy run through Yorba Regional Park two weeks later brought Martinez his second consecutive Century League title, but more importantly to him, the team championship as well.

“The individual win is nice, but the team banner will always be up on the wall at school,” Martinez said after leading the Panthers to their first league title since the 1961-62 season in the Crestview League.

After easing through the Southern Section preliminaries, Martinez lost contact with the leaders in the Division I section finals race, fading uncharacteristically to fourth in 15:17.

“That was the worst race of the year for him,” Cantu said. “He didn’t run a bad race or time, he just wasn’t accustomed to the fast pace that early in the race.”

The State finals were a different story; Martinez trailed only San Diego senior Mebrahtom Keflezighi to the finish line, running 15:18 for second place and priming him for a sixth-place finish in the Foot Locker West Regional. His finish in the regional advanced him to his second consecutive national championship race in as many years.

Martinez capped his prep career with a 12th-place finish at the Foot Locker Nationals.