Requiem of a Reluctant Runner : Well-Traveled Wilson Becomes Cross-Country Star at Moorpark College

Good luck convincing Jeff Wilson that he has accomplished anything noteworthy this fall.

The Moorpark College sophomore is undefeated heading into Friday’s Western State Conference cross-country meet at College of the Canyons, but too much has been made of that fact, he says.

“Why do you want to talk to me?” Wilson asked a reporter earlier this week.

Informed that his unblemished record had established him as one of the top junior college runners in the state, Wilson still was uncomfortable about conducting an interview.

“It’s been a fluke,” he said. “It’s just one of those things that has happened and I have no idea why.”

Though Wilson says he is “totally surprised” by his success, it comes as little shock to those familiar with his high school exploits.

At Newbury Park High, Wilson won a pair of State Division III cross-country titles and was the runner-up in the 1991 Kinney national championships.

During the 1992 track season, he ran personal bests of 4 minutes 9.75 seconds in the 1,600 meters and 9:06.73 in the 3,200. He finished fourth in the 1,600 in the State championships.

Those credentials and a solid academic background made Wilson one of the most highly recruited distance runners in the country before he signed a letter of intent with Brigham Young.

A member of the Mormon Church, Wilson always had wanted to attend BYU, but he lasted only one year at the Western Athletic Conference school before returning home. Wilson enjoyed a solid--if unspectacular--freshman season in Provo. He typically finished fourth, fifth or sixth on the cross-country team that finished second in the WAC championships. He also ran 3:52.1 in the 1,500 during track season.

His problems at BYU arose when he balked at starting a scheduled two-year mission in the summer of 1993.

Because BYU expected Wilson to be away from school during the 1993-95 academic years, his scholarship money was earmarked for other athletes. Wilson could no longer afford to stay at BYU, but he doesn’t regret his decision.

“I just felt like I wasn’t ready to go on a mission,” he said. “The time wasn’t right.”

When Wilson returned home, he planned to work before starting his mission in the spring of 1995 and returning to BYU in the fall of 1997. He wasn’t thrilled with full-time work, however.

Characterizing himself as someone “who was going nowhere,” Wilson enrolled at Moorpark last spring and occasionally worked out with the Raider track team.

He spoke of running cross-country, but Raider Coach Manny Trevino figured he was joking.

“Jeff is a very happy-go-lucky kind of guy,” Trevino said. “So we weren’t sure if he was serious or not. We thought he might just be saying those things to see how we would react.”

Once Trevino was convinced of Wilson’s sincerity, he realized that he would be working with a tremendously talented runner.

Many coaches would have been tempted to give someone of Wilson’s caliber a heavy training load, but Trevino refrained from doing that for two reasons.

First, Wilson had been running only 15-20 miles a week during his layoff. Second, Wilson had told Trevino that he felt pressured as a scholarship athlete at BYU.

“He just kept talking about how much pressure was put on athletes there,” Trevino said. “So I said, ‘Let’s just do this under a low-key atmosphere. Let’s just have fun and see what happens.’ ”

That attitude, combined with a relatively light training regimen of 40-45 miles per week, has fit Wilson well.

Although his expectations were almost nonexistent, he opened the season Sept. 16 with a course-record time in the Santa Monica Invitational.

He followed that with a victory in the first Western State Conference meet in San Luis Obispo before winning the Bakersfield Invitational and the Santa Barbara Invitational.

After winning the first two meets by margins of six and nine seconds, respectively, Wilson has won the last two by 18 and 16.

“I was afraid he would start off the season well and then perhaps stagnate after the newness of it all wore off,” Trevino said. “But that hasn’t happened. It appears that Jeff is getting stronger and stronger.”

Wilson’s strength will be tested Oct. 29 at the Johnie O Invitational at Moorpark. The meet, named after the late Yuba City Coach, John O’Rognen, serves as the Southern California championships, the qualifying competition for the State championships in Fresno on Nov. 19.

Riverside’s Wilhelm Gudabuday of Ethiopia and Abderrazak Merchoud of Morocco, who finished second and sixth in last year’s State championships, are the favorites.

“(The Johnie O meet) will be a good test for Jeff,” Trevino said. “It’ll be interesting to see how he responds to that type of competition.”

Wilson is taking a typically nonchalant approach to the meet.

“Manny is always talking about how much work it takes to put on the meet and how it’s on our home course, so I guess it’s a big meet,” Wilson said. “But I haven’t given it much thought.”

Although Wilson might appear to downplay the significance of the Johnie O meet to keep pressure off himself, Trevino said it is not an act. He describes Wilson as one who “honestly doesn’t think he’s accomplished much” this season.

“He doesn’t view himself as anything special,” Trevino said. “I don’t think he realizes how talented he is or how good he could be.

“With his speed, strength and durability, I think he could be a national-class runner someday.”