Mortensen Gets the Feeling UCLA Just Right for Her

Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks High, the 1995 national cross-country champion, has committed to run track and cross-country at UCLA.

Mortensen took recruiting trips to Arizona, UCLA, Stanford and Colorado earlier this year before narrowing her choices to UCLA and Stanford.

“I really liked the team and I wanted to stay fairly close to home so UCLA was the right choice,” Mortensen said. “When I went there, everything just felt right. I guess you could say I went a lot by feeling.”

Had Mortensen picked Arizona, she would have joined former Agoura High rival Amy Skieresz, who placed second in last year’s NCAA cross-country championships as a freshman. But UCLA was the best fit for Mortensen.

“I felt like UCLA had a really good balance between academics and athletics,” Mortensen said. “I think it would be really fun to run with Amy, if I could keep up with her, because she’s having a great year. But ultimately I didn’t want to make my decision based on a particular person being at a school. I had to do what was best for me.”

Mortensen capped a superb cross-country season with her upset victory in the national championships at Morley Field in San Diego.

She had set seven course records and tied another while winning 10 races before the national championships, but defending champion Julia Stamps of Santa Rosa had beaten her four times by a minimum of 19 seconds in each race.

Stamps battled a cold earlier in the week before the national championships, however, and Mortensen surged past her at the two-mile mark of the 5,000-meter race. Stamps passed out about a quarter-mile later, and Mortensen became the first runner from the region to win the girls’ title in the 17-year history of the meet.

Mortensen has shown no sign of slowing down in track.

She ran a personal best of 4 minutes 53.27 seconds to win the girls’ mile in the L.A. Invitational indoor meet at the Sports Arena on Feb. 24 and she timed 4:54.11 to place second in the National Scholastic Indoor championships in Roxbury, Mass., on Sunday.

She will run her first 3,200-meter race of the season in the Channel Coast Invitational at Camarillo High on Saturday.