1994 PREP PREVIEW / BOYS’ CROSS-COUNTRY : Sanchez Ready, Willing, Able to Go Distance for Cougars

He’s not the kind of athlete who tells you he’s going to beat you. He’s not the kind of athlete who looks intimidating. But Adalberto Sanchez is the kind of athlete who knows how to win.

The Capistrano Valley senior is Orange County’s top boys’ cross-country runner, partly because of his strong work ethic and partly because he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sanchez, at 5 feet 2 and 105 pounds, has a competitive style that punishes most of his opponents. He takes the lead at the start of every race, sets a brutal pace early and makes everybody play catch-up.

“I run that way because I don’t like to lose,” said Sanchez through an interpreter. He has been enrolled in the English as a Second Language Program since he arrived in the United States from Mexico in eighth grade.

“He’s definitely a front-runner,” said Gary Gross, Capistrano Valley boys’ cross-country coach.

Ken Sayles, who coaches Sanchez and his distance-running teammates during track season, sees his leading pupil’s strategy as a warning to some and a challenge to others.

“The way he runs, it’s saying, ‘If you want to go with me, then go.’ Unfortunately at the very elite level, some kids can do just that,” Sayles said.

The Southern Section Master’s meet competition proved to be just elite enough last track season, as Sanchez led the section’s top eight 3,200-meter runners for most of the race at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach. But his early pace came back to haunt him and he was caught in the final 100 meters, finishing sixth and missing by one spot the final qualifying position for the State meet. Sanchez lowered his personal best by nearly three seconds to 9 minutes 13.48 seconds.

Gross says the longest distance prep runners are allowed to run--3,200 meters--is not sufficient to showcase Sanchez’s talents.

“He is destined to be a marathoner or 10,000-meter runner,” said Gross of Sanchez, who has expressed an interest in running the 26.2-mile marathon distance for his native Mexico on the international level.

For now, though, Sanchez will have to settle for the three-mile and five-kilometer courses offered during the fall’s cross-country season. And if last year was any indication, the distance seems to suit him fine for now.

As a junior, Sanchez won the South Coast League final in the fall, then came back in the spring to win the 1,600 and 3,200 races in track for the Cougars.

He also enjoyed success outside the county, winning the section Division I-AA race and finishing 12th in the State Division I cross-country race. Sanchez was selected to The Times’ all-county first team in cross-country and second team in track.

He has the fifth-best time among returning underclassmen in the State’s large-school division, 13 seconds behind the State’s top returner, Jeff Fischer of Thousand Oaks.

One of California’s other top runners, Eliasar Hernandez of Camarillo High, hails from the same region in Mexico as Sanchez. Both grew up in the town of Nepantla, Mexico, just outside Mexico City. Hernandez turned in a 15:27 clocking at the State Division II race; Sanchez finished in 15:39 in the Division I final.

Running is not the only feature that sets Sanchez apart from the crowd. The spiked, straight-up hairstyle has also become a trademark of the Cougar workhorse.

“That’s my real hair. No hair spray,” insisted Sanchez with a laugh.

Sanchez has yet to secure a spot on the Foot Locker National Team, but it remains one of his goals.

“I would like to win the State and be able to run in the Nationals,” he said.

The top runners from the West Coast battle at Fresno’s Woodward Park at season’s end for the right to wear the West team jersey at the Dec. 12 event held annually in San Diego. Only the top eight athletes from each region advance.

“He knows how hard he works and he knows what it takes to win,” Sayles said. “So anything is possible.”

Gross believes the same and has pointed Sanchez’s training toward the end of the season.

“He didn’t run last year because we felt his best was run at the State meet,” Gross said. “At his rate of progression, I really don’t see why he can’t make the (West) team.”