Thousand Oaks Tries to Double Up for Second Week in a Row : Cross-country: After winning boys’ and girls’ Southern Section titles, Lancers set sights on state crowns.

With last week’s results in the record books, the Thousand Oaks High boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams will shoot for their second historic double in today’s State championships at Woodward Park.

The Lancers won the Division I boys’ and girls’ titles in last Saturday’s Southern Section championships at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut to become the first program to sweep the major-division titles in the same year.

This morning, they’re favored to become the first program to sweep the Division I titles in the State meet, although Coach Jack Farrell is taking a low-key approach.

“It would probably be important to me after the fact if we win both races,” Farrell said. “But I’m not thinking about that right now. I’m more concerned with the boys and girls as separate teams since they have to run separate races.”

The Thousand Oaks boys, the No. 3-ranked team in The Harrier magazine’s national poll, are heavy favorites.

The Lancers, paced by the 3-4-5 finish of seniors Keith O’Doherty, Jeff Fischer and Kevin Marsden, posted a 29-111 victory over runner-up Peninsula in the section championships last weekend. Thousand Oaks’ team time of 77 minutes 9 seconds wiped out the course record of 77:56 the Lancers set in winning last year’s section title.

“It’s hard for me to believe that (we’re) not the best team in the country,” Farrell said.

Top-ranked Kingwood (Tex.) defeated Thousand Oaks, 37-44, in the Southwestern University Invitational on Oct. 1, but the Lancers were not 100%. Fischer and Marsden were running in only their second meet of the season after missing the first two races because of injuries.

Since then, Fischer and Marsden have returned to the form that propelled them to third- and fifth-place finishes in last year’s State championships. Juniors Todd Disney and Josh Carolan also have improved. There was only a 26-second gap among the Lancers’ top five runners last week.

In the girls’ race, San Diego Section champion Vista, Peninsula and defending State champion Irvine are expected to give Thousand Oaks its toughest competition.

Thousand Oaks, led by runner-up Kim Mortensen, totaled 54 points to turn back Peninsula (79) for the Southern Section title last week, but third-place Irvine (99) is still considered a threat. The Vaqueros finished fourth in last year’s section finals before winning the State title.

The Lancers are not the only local program shooting for a team-title sweep in today’s meet.

Nordhoff, led by senior Javier Ramirez and freshman Elaine Canchola, will attempt to post upset victories in the Division III boys’ and girls’ races.

Livermore defeated Nordhoff, 86-140, in the boys’ Division III sweepstakes race at last month’s Mt. San Antonio College Invitational, but the Rangers have improved dramatically since.

They recorded a school-record team time of 79:44 in winning last week’s section championships, and Ramirez won the individual title with a time of 15:10 over the three-mile course. In comparison, Nordhoff’s team time was 83:42 in the Mt. SAC Invitational and Ramirez finished third in 15:40.

Concord Clayton Valley, which posted a faster team time than Thousand Oaks in the Mt. SAC Invitational, is an overwhelming favorite in the Division III girls’ race.

But Nordhoff Coach Ken Reeves is optimistic about his team’s chances. The Ranger girls have cut more than seven minutes off their team time since the Mt. SAC Invitational.

“If (Clayton Valley) has improved, they’re awfully scary,” Reeves said. “But our kids think they can challenge them and I’m not going to tell them anything differently.”

In addition to Ramirez and Canchola, several area performers are expected to contend for individual titles. Eleazar Hernandez of Camarillo and Adalberto Sanchez of Capistrano Valley, who finished 1-2 in the Southern Section championships, are expected to fight it out for the Division I boys’ title.

Sanchez led most of last week’s race, but Hernandez was able to catch him in the final 800 meters.

Antonio Arce of Palmdale is favored in the Division II boys’ race, but Mike Stember of team favorite Carmichael Jesuit and John Greene of Agoura also appear capable of winning. Greene finished second to Arce in last week’s section finals.

Stember outkicked Brett Strahan of Hart and Arce in the Stanford Invitational on Oct. 1, but Arce has defeated Stember twice since.

Amy Skieresz of Agoura, the defending Division I champion, is favored to win the Division II girls’ race.

Skieresz placed fifth, second and first at the Division I level from 1991- 93, but Agoura has dropped to Division II this season.

Shaluinn Fullove of Louisville, the Southern Section Division IV girls’ champion, could contend for a top-five finish today.

The meet begins with the Division IV boys’ race at 9 a.m.