HIGH SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY / STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS : Santa Rosa’s Stamps Wins, Even With a Too-Fast Start

Julia Stamps of Santa Rosa High tied her course record in winning her second consecutive Division I girls’ title in Saturday’s state cross-country championships at Woodward Park, but she said it wasn’t a flawless performance.

Despite running 16 minutes 45 seconds over the 5,000-meter course to tie the mark she set in last year’s Foot Locker West regional, Stamps said that her 5:08 first mile proved detrimental to her later in the race.

“I went out too fast,” she said. “I was too excited and hyped up. When I saw 4:59 [on a digital board] before the mile, I told myself to slow down. If I had come through in 5:02 or 5:03, I think my coach would have had a heart attack.”

Stamps, the defending national champion, might have told herself to back off the pace at the mile, but it was hard to tell as her nine-second lead over Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks grew to 21 seconds at two miles.

Mortensen, who had broken seven course records this season, finished 19 seconds behind Stamps in last month’s Mt. San Antonio College Invitational, but she was a distant second in 17:25 Saturday.

While Stamps was the standout individual performer in the meet, Ojai Nordhoff stood out in the team competition.

The Ranger boys won their third consecutive Division III title and the girls upset defending champion Concord Clayton Valley, 43-52. Clayton Valley was the fourth-ranked team in the nation by the Harrier magazine, but the Eagles could not keep pace with Nordhoff, which produced a team time of 93:57 to move to fourth on the all-time course list.