Mission Viejo’s Gleason Maintains His Streak of Success at Meet

Every great performance deserves an encore.

Mark Gleason, who won the Orange County Championship individual boys’ title last weekend, was second in the team sweepstakes race Saturday in the 48th running of the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational.

Gleason, a Mission Viejo junior, posted the fastest time by a county runner since 1994, completing the hilly, three-mile course in 15 minutes 22 seconds. He was runner-up to Glendale Hoover senior David Lopez (15:01).

“I wasn’t really looking for a certain time,” said Gleason, who ran 16:02 on the course last year. “But a 42-second improvement on this course. . . . I can’t believe it. I was surprised.”

Gleason wasn’t the only county runner pleased with a performance Saturday.

Michael Murray, a Santa Margarita senior, finished fourth and lowered his personal best on the course to 15:25.

“When we got to the two-mile mark and I heard 9:54, I was like ‘Wow, this is good,’ ” Murray said.

The Santa Ana Valley boys’ team, second at the county championships, was fourth in Saturday’s team race with 187 points and a team time of 81:31. The Falcons were led by senior Luis Estrada, who was 14th in 15:50. That was two seconds and a place ahead of Santa Ana’s Alfonso Leon.

“[The county championships meet] was either going to break us or make us better,” said Santa Ana Valley Coach George Payan, whose Falcons lost the team title to Tustin by five points last week. “I think today shows it’s going to make us better.”

Santa Margarita (81:46) edged Huntington Beach (82:04) for eighth place. Santa Ana (82:11) finished 10th.

Danny Lee of El Toro posted the county’s third-fastest individual time, winning Division I race No. 42 in 15:38. The Chargers (82:10) won the race’s team title by scoring 85 points.

The Irvine girls’ team (97:52) finished fourth in the team sweepstakes race with 173 points, edging Esperanza (98:41; 182 points) and Dana Hills (98:34; 186 points).

Irvine was led by sophomores Erin Zehntner (18:55), who finished 12th, and Melissa Livermore (18:56), who was 13th.

Dana Hills, which won its second consecutive county girls’ title last week, ran without senior Sydney Leonard, out with a stomach virus. Dolphin junior Christa Fitzgerald finished fifth in 18:28.

Santa Margarita’s Katie Nuanes was fourth in the individual sweepstakes race, running 18:14 to lead the second-place Eagles (155 points), six points behind Rialto.

Marina, third with 175 points, was led by senior Jennifer Spahr, who was sixth in 18:33.

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* RESULTS

Complete results for Mt. SAC Cross-Country Invitational are on C21.