Serratos Is Kicking Up Dust for Glendale

Ramon Serratos can laugh about it now. But it wasn’t funny at the time.

After several members of the Glendale College men’s cross-country team dusted him during a 12-mile run in Griffith Park last summer, Serratos was asked by Vaquero Coach Eddie Lopez what happened.

“I got lost. I took a wrong turn,” Serratos said, fibbing.

But he thought, “Damn, those guys kicked my [butt]. There’s no way I’m even going to be the No. 6 runner on this team.”

Luckily for Glendale, Serratos was wrong.

He has been the Vaqueros’ No. 1 runner in every meet this season and is a big reason why Glendale is expected to battle Rancho Santiago for the team title in the State junior college championships today at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Glendale beat Rancho Santiago, 43-46, in the Santa Barbara Invitational on Oct. 14, but two weeks later the Dons scored a 73-80 victory over Glendale in the Johnie O Invitational at Costa Mesa.

Both races were decided in the final mile and Serratos expects the same today.

“We just have to get out with Rancho,” he said. “They go out hard. We’ve been doing more speed work the last week so we’re ready to run. We just need to be in position with a mile to go and we should be OK.”

Serratos outkicked Eleazar Hernandez of Moorpark in three of seven races this season, but Hernandez, from Camarillo High, dealt him a resounding 38-second loss in the Western State Conference championships at Ventura’s Arroyo Verde Park 11 days ago.

“I tried to catch him after the first mile and a half,” Serratos said. “But he just took off going into the hills. After that, I said ‘Damn, there’s no way I’m going to catch him so I’ll just settle for second.’ ”

Despite the loss, Serratos likes his chances in today’s race because Woodward Park’s relatively flat course favors runners who have good speed and a strong kick.

Serratos possesses both qualities.

He ran 9 minutes 20 seconds in the 3,200 meters as a Duarte High senior in 1993. He signed a letter of intent with Cal State Northridge, but was declared academically ineligible after failing to meet requirements under the NCAA’s Proposition 48.

He attended Northridge for a year before transferring to College of the Canyons. Out of shape when the 1994 cross-country season began, Serratos placed 40th in the State championships. In track, he won the Southern California title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and was third in the State meet.

Things seemed to be going well for him at Canyons but he transferred to Glendale because he felt like he wasn’t being pushed.

“At COC, you thought you were training hard, but that’s because you were basically running by yourself,” Serratos said. “[At Glendale] you’ve got all kinds of guys to push you. . . . These guys are serious. They run 10 miles on their recovery days. My longest runs at COC were eight miles.”

Serratos never questioned his decision to transfer, even while lagging behind on those long summer runs in Griffith Park.

“I wanted to get my [butt] kicked,” he said. “I need to be pushed. If I had stayed at COC, these guys [at Glendale] would still be beating me.”