Neipp and Lopez Face Uphill Run at West Regional

Seniors Andrea Neipp of Highland High and David Lopez of Hoover have been the best cross-country runners in the region all season.

Today, they’ll see how they stack up against the top runners in the western United States when they compete in the West regional championships at Woodward Park.

The meet starts at 8:30 a.m. with the freshman boys’ race. The seeded boys’ race starts at 1:15 and the seeded girls’ go off at 2.

Neipp won the Division II girls’ title in last week’s state championships at Woodward Park and Lopez was second in the Division I boys’ race, but their goals today will be to place among the top eight finishers and qualify for the national finals in San Diego on Dec. 14.

“[Making nationals] has been my goal since the start of the season,” Neipp said. “I didn’t have a goal to be state champ, but I did want to qualify for nationals.”

Neipp should contend for a top-five finish, based on her 17-minute 33-second clocking over the 5,000-meter course in the state meet.

Another victory would be a huge upset since two-time defending West Region champion Julia Stamps of Santa Rosa and Kristen Gordon of Concord Corondelet are considered the class of the field.

Both are undefeated this season and Stamps clocked a course-record 16:43 to win the state Division I title last week.

Gordon’s winning time of 17:17 in the Division III race was much slower than Stamps’ mark, but her 16:57 clocking over Mt. San Antonio College’s renowned three-mile course earlier this season missed Stamps’ course record by only two seconds.

La Canada senior Sara Ellis and Nordhoff junior Elaine Canchola could contend for a top-eight finish if they can improve upon their times from the state championships.

Ellis ran 18:01 to upset Canchola, who finished in 18:24, at the Division IV race last week, but it will probably take a clocking in the 17:45-17:50 range to finish among the top eight.

Canchola placed second with a time of 17:33 in the 1994 West regional and fourth in 17:39 last year, but she hasn’t run as well this year after missing track season to help care for her younger siblings after school and to take a break from competition.

Lopez has a good chance to place among the top eight finishers in the boys’ race--and become the third Hoover runner to qualify for the national championships--if he can run five or six seconds faster than his state-meet clocking of 15:20.

Hoover Coach Greg Switzer figures Lopez can do that if he’s recovered from last week’s race.

“He’s been feeling very sluggish this week because [the state meet] was the second time all season he’s maxed out,” Switzer said. “That’s only the second time he let it all hang out.”

The first was the team sweepstakes race in the Mt. SAC Invitational six weeks ago when Lopez clocked a school-record 15:01 to blow away a high-quality field that included senior Tom Prindiville of Concord De La Salle, who was fifth in the 1995 West regional.

Nordhoff junior Dusty Herman and Palmdale senior Jacob Geyer head the list of other top entries from the region.

Herman clocked 15:49 to place fourth in the Division IV race of the state championships and Geyer ran 15:50 to finish 10th in the Division II race.