Realignment Changes Cross-Country Picture

Repeat champions could be scarce when the state high school cross-country championships celebrate their 10th anniversary at Fresno’s Woodward Park on Nov. 30, thanks to the addition of a fifth enrollment-based division.

The California Interscholastic Federation added the fifth division this year to give cross-country the same number of state champions as basketball and volleyball, but the realignment has led to four of the eight boys’ and girls’ team champions from last year competing at different levels this season.

Ojai Nordhoff and McFarland won the Division III and IV boys’ titles last year, but they’ll run at the Division IV and V levels this season.

On the girls’ side, defending champions Canyon Country Canyon and Nordhoff have each dropped a level after winning the Division I and III titles.

Any team can petition to run at the Division I level if it so desires, but the Fair Oaks Del Campo boys’ squad is the only defending state champion that did so by the CIF’s Tuesday deadline.

Del Campo, the defending state Division I champion, has been classified as a Division II school since 1992 based on its enrollment, but Coach Bob King will move his boys’ team up to Division I for the fifth consecutive year for two reasons.

First, he wants his team to try to defend the title it won last year.

Second, he feels that Del Campo has a better chance of defeating Grass Valley Nevada Union in Division I than it does of beating three-time defending state champion Carmichael Jesuit in Division II in either the Sac-Joaquin Section or state championships.

“We’d rather contend with Nevada Union than Jesuit,” King said. “Jesuit usually has so much depth.”

Canyon Country Canyon Coach Dave DeLong had caused a stir in the Southern Section coaching community last month when he expressed sentiments similar to King’s.

DeLong reasoned that moving up to Division I might improve his team’s chances of advancing from the Southern Section to the state championships, but he decided last week to remain in Division II.

“From what I’ve seen, there are seven solid teams at the Division I level, counting us,” DeLong said. “But there are only four, including us, at Division II.”

Although opinions differ over which girls’ division--I or II--is stronger at the Southern Section level, few question the dominance of Yucaipa, the defending state Division II champion.

With four of its top five runners back, including juniors Kimi Welsh and Vickie Whiteside, the Thunderbirds are the No. 3-ranked team in Harrier magazine’s national poll.

Welsh and Whiteside placed second and 12th in the state Division II meet last year, and Welsh followed that with fifth- and 16th-place finishes in the West regional and national championships.

Welsh is one of three returning runners in the Southern Section who ran in the national finals.

The others are Santa Margarita senior Katie Nuanes, who finished 17th in the national meet, and Nordhoff junior Elaine Canchola, who finished 26th.

Canchola is expected to be the leader of a powerful Nordhoff team--ranked sixth in the nation--by the end of the season, but she has started slowly after missing the track season to care for her younger siblings after school and to take a break from the pressures of competition.

There don’t appear to be any outstanding boys’ teams in either the Southern or City sections this season.

Rather, there are several teams that have solid 1-2 or 1-2-3 punches followed by sizable gaps to their remaining runners.

“This is a down year on the boys’ side,” Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula Coach Joe Kelly said. “You’re going to have a lot of teams with two or three top runners and then it’s going to come down to who has the best of the rest.”

Senior Michael Murray of Santa Margarita and junior Ronnie Buchanan of Santa Maria Righetti are the top returning individuals from last year, having placed 13th and 16th in the West regional.

Junior Isaiah Festa of Morro Bay and senior David Lopez of Glendale Hoover finished eighth and ninth in the 3,200 meters in the state track championships in June.

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Cross-Country at a Glance

INDIVIDUALS TO WATCH

BOYS

* Ryan Deane, Rolling Hills Peninsula, senior

* Isaiah Festa, Morro Bay, junior

* David Lopez, Glendale Hoover, senior

* Michael Murray, Santa Margarita, senior

* Nick Russell, Orange, senior

GIRLS

* Elaine Canchola, Ojai Nordhoff, junior

* Allyson Marquand, Irvine University, sophomore

* Katie Nuances, Santa Margarita, senior

* Robin Scott, San Marcos, sophomore.

* Kimi Welsh, Yucaipa, junior

KEY MEETS

Saturday--Stanford Invitational

Oct. 19--Orange County Championships at Irvine Regional Park

Oct. 25-26--Mt. San Antonio College Invitational

Nov. 1--Ventura County Championships at Ojai

Nov. 23--City Section Championships at Pierce College,

Southern Section Championships at Mt. San Antonio College

Nov. 30--State Championships at Fresno

Dec. 7--West Regionals at Fresno

Dec. 14--National Championships at San Diego