Mission Viejo’s Gleason Climbs to the Top

Coming into this season, Mission Viejo’s Mark Gleason wasn’t always recognized among the county front-runners. But no one is ignoring him now.

Gleason has emerged as perhaps the top boys’ cross-country runner in the county. He leads a group of hopefuls vying to become the first county runners to qualify for the Foot Locker National Championships since 1993.

Two weekends ago, Gleason blistered the field to win at the Orange County Championships and become Mission Viejo’s first county champion. He proved his performance wasn’t a fluke Saturday at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational.

There, Gleason posted the fastest county time although he lost a race for the first time this season. He finished second in Saturday’s team sweepstakes race at Mt. SAC in 15 minutes 22 seconds over the hilly three-mile course.

Gleason’s time was the fastest by a county runner on that course since 1994, when Adalberto Sanchez of Capistrano Valley finished in 14:55.

Gleason finished ahead of Tom Prindville of Concord De La Salle, who finished fifth in 15:31. Prindville finished 13th at the Foot Locker Nationals last season. Only Glendale Hoover senior David Lopez (15:01) finished ahead of Gleason.

“If anyone wasn’t sure that Gleason was strong on the hills, I think he proved something to them Saturday,” Santa Margarita Coach Dave Zeitler said. “He’s a terrific runner.”

One week earlier at the Orange County Championships, Gleason won in 15:05 on the 3.05-mile course at Irvine Regional Park, beating a host of county competitors with higher profiles and impressive credentials.

Among them were Santa Margarita senior Michael Murray (15:17), the 1995 Times Orange County cross-country runner of the year who finished third, and Huntington Beach senior Tony Trueba (15:35), the defending Orange County champion who finished eighth.

“During the race, I just thought to myself, ‘Hey, I can run with these guys,’ ” Gleason said. “I’ve worked hard to get where I’m at.”

Nick Russell of Orange charged hard to finish second in 15:13, but he couldn’t overtake Gleason.

“That kid ran as fast as Jaime Martinez did for us,” said Orange Coach Don Burnette, who also coached Martinez, The Times Orange County runner of the year in 1993. “Nick ran his butt off, but on that day, he wasn’t going to beat Gleason.

“He’s definitely for real.”

Gleason, a junior, posted a winning time in the county championships that was only three seconds slower than Martinez’s winning time as a senior (15:02). As a junior, Martinez finished second in 15:06, but he qualified for the Foot Locker National Championships in both 1992 and ’93.

Martinez was the last county runner to qualify for that race.

“Qualifying for nationals is something I’ve only recently added to my list of goals,” Gleason said. “I’ve just been taking one race at a time.”

That focus and commitment have made an impression on Mission Viejo Coach Gene Gurule, who has been at the school for 28 seasons.

“Mark really wants to help us win a team championship,” Gurule said. “Although we’ve won 10 league titles since I’ve been here, we haven’t won a team league title since ’85.”

The Diablos can take a big step on Thursday, when they meet Mater Dei in the final dual meet of the season, leading up to the league finals. Both are unbeaten in league.

Gleason’s efforts are a big reason for the Diablos’ success.

“He’s been a joy to coach,” Gurule said. “We just set him on the course and watch him run.”

Gurule hasn’t had a runner of this caliber in some time. Jeff Vandereems still holds the school record in the two-mile (9:02.4), which he set in 1979, and the Diablos’ only section title was won in 1991.

“That would have been great to see, all of our best runners in one race,” Gurule said. “At three miles, I think Mark could beat the best I’ve had here.”

Gurule also is excited about his team this year. Including Gleason, six of the team’s top-seven runners are non-seniors and should return for next season. Gleason’s younger brother, David, is a freshman on the varsity.

Mark and David are two of 10 children in the Gleason family. When Mark isn’t training, he’s working on his break dancing moves.

“I went with some of my friends to Balboa,” Gleason said. “We all had the polyester clothes, took the ghetto blaster out there, put down some cardboard and just started dancing.

“We even made $18.”

Gleason is getting more attention now for his running, but he doesn’t mind if no one notices the accomplishments.

“The more they don’t know about us,” Gleason said, “the harder I want to work so we can go kick their butts.”