THE TIMES 1994 FALL ALL-COUNTY TEAMS : Cougars’ Sanchez Leaves Rest of Field in His Wake : Runner of the year: Senior from Capistrano Valley wins county title and dominates area competition during another successful season.

He was so much better than everyone in Orange County that he probably never thought about losing to a local runner.

Capistrano Valley’s Adalberto Sanchez, The Times Orange County runner of the year, thoroughly dominated area competition with his aggressive style, running away with numerous invitational titles, in addition to another league crown and his first Orange County Championship title.

The beginning of his senior season was delayed when his first race--the Laguna Hills Invitational--was canceled because of excessive heat on the course.

The next week, Sanchez coasted to a divisional victory at the Woodbridge Invitational, then a week later, finished with the second-fastest time of the day at the Dana Hills Invitational.

The 14:37 in the latter race was the fastest by any county athlete on any three-mile course during the 1994 season. After finishing third in the county championships as a junior, Sanchez achieved one of his seasonal goals with a 25-second victory over runner-up Glenn Busch of Orange in 15:13.

Sanchez won his third-consecutive South Coast League title after streaking undefeated through the league dual meets. He won the race by 31 seconds, in 15:11.

But the Southern Section Division I preliminaries was the race that put him on the map, as he defeated a talented field, including two eventual members of the Foot Locker national team.

Sanchez cruised to a 15:08 clocking on a Mt. San Antonio College course that features rigorous hills, besting Camarillo’s Eleazar Hernandez and Hart’s Brett Strahan to stake his claim as one of the State’s top runners.

The next week in the section final, Hernandez edged Sanchez by 1/2 second (14:54).

Sanchez led the state’s finest through the half-way point the next weekend in the Division I race at the State championships in Fresno, but faded to finish fifth.

“I think I went out a little too fast,” Sanchez said.

Too fast. That’s what most people think when they think of Adalberto Sanchez.