BOYS’ RUNNER OF THE YEAR : A Fit Bernaldo Was Nordhoff’s Cure-All

He didn’t run his best in the Foot Locker national cross-country championships in San Diego last Saturday, but senior Will Bernaldo of Nordhoff High wasn’t too upset with his 22nd-place finish.

After all, two months ago, no one--himself included--expected him to qualify for the race.

Mononucleosis prevented Bernaldo from running in the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational on Oct. 20 and for a few days he thought his senior season was over.

“I don’t want this to sound like sour grapes, but after everything I’ve been through, it’s hard to be too upset,” Bernaldo said after Saturday’s race. “It’s an honor just to run in this meet.”

Bernaldo placed a promising 15th in the Ventura County championships in his first race back from the illness. The following week, he turned heads by winning the Frontier League title with a time that was a minute and six seconds faster than his performance in the county meet over the same Lake Casitas course.

Two weeks later, he won the Southern Section Division III title to lead Nordhoff to its second consecutive championship.

He followed that with a third-place finish in the State championships as the Rangers won an unprecedented third consecutive title.

Then came the shocker: A seventh-place finish in the West regional--the top eight runnersadvance to the national championships--on Dec. 2 as Bernaldo cut 21 seconds off his time from the State championships over the same course at Woodward Park in Fresno.

“I was really happy with my race in the West regional,” Bernaldo said.

“Looking back on it, I kind of came out of my shell and became the runner I wanted to be all season.”