Nearly a Foot Locker Shoo-In : Cross-country: After last year’s stunning performance, Nordhoff’s Elaine Canchola enters today’s regional meet as a favorite to advance to national championships.

As a freshman, she was a fast-rising star who shocked coaches and spectators alike with a runner-up finish in the Foot Locker West regional.

But Elaine Canchola of Nordhoff High will enter today’s Foot Locker regional meet at Woodward Park as a seasoned sophomore who has won Division III titles in the Southern Section and State championships the previous two weeks.

The top eight finishers in the boys’ and girls’ races will qualify for the national championships in San Diego on Dec. 9.

Canchola was regarded as a longshot to advance to the national meet last year after finishing second to Heather Garritson of Buena Park in the State Division III championships, but it will be a surprise if she doesn’t place among the top eight today.

She had the third-fastest time in last week’s State meet--also run at Woodward Park--and the two runners ahead of her were Santa Rosa junior Julia Stamps and Thousand Oaks senior Kim Mortensen, regarded as the top runners in the nation.

“Elaine seems to have matured as a runner this year,” Nordhoff Coach Ken Reeves said. “She’s just running with greater confidence. . . . She seems to be more aware of what’s going on around her.”

That was evident in the State meet as Canchola was content to let Veronica Sanchez of Wasco push the early pace before Canchola broke open the race in the second mile.

“Last year, it was like, ‘I have to be with [the leaders],’ ” Reeves said of Canchola’s mind-set. “But this year she’s saying, ‘They’ll come back to me.’ ”

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In recent weeks, Canchola has even gained ground on Mortensen, whose three losses this season have come to defending national champion Stamps.

Mortensen defeated Canchola by 46 seconds in the Ventura County championships five weeks ago and three weeks later timed 17 minutes, 17 seconds over the three-mile course at Mt. San Antonio College to win the Southern Section Division I title. Canchola clocked 17:35 in the Division III race.

Canchola closed the gap to 11 seconds in the State meet as Mortensen (17:25) finished second behind Stamps (16:45) in the Division I race and Canchola won the Division III title with a time of 17:36 over the 5,000-meter distance.

Mortensen has had such a superb season--breaking seven course records--that last week’s performance was regarded as an “off” race, but Thousand Oaks Coach Jack Farrell expects her to bounce back.

“Last week, she got caught in that no-man’s land,” Farrell said. “She couldn’t see anyone in front of her and she couldn’t hear any footsteps behind her. She was a couple of hundred yards behind Julia, yet she was even farther ahead of the next girl behind her.”

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Highland junior Andrea Neipp finished third (18:12) behind Stamps and Mortensen in the State meet, but the Bulldog junior could finish among the top eight today if she cuts 20-25 seconds off last week’s time.

That might sound a little far-fetched, but Neipp ran 17:38 in last month’s Mt. SAC Invitational, and times over Mt. SAC’s hilly three-mile course are considered comparable to Woodward Park’s relatively flat 5,000-meter layout.

Seniors Will Bernaldo of Nordhoff and Todd Disney of Thousand Oaks head the list of local entries in the boys’ race.

Bernaldo (15:45 in Division III) and Disney (15:47 in Division I) each finished third in the State meet, but they’ll have to run substantially faster to place among the top eight today.

Although the boys’ field doesn’t appear to be as strong as in previous years, it probably will take a time in the 15:20-15:25 range to qualify for the national meet.

The boys’ seeded race begins at 1:15 p.m. and the girls’ race at 2.