Stamps Beaten in West Regional, Utah’s Andrus Wins Boys’ Race

A Northern Californian won the girls’ title in the West Regional cross-country championships at Woodward Park on Saturday as expected, but the victor was Kristen Gordon of Concord Carondelet High, not two-time defending champion Julia Stamps of Santa Rosa.

Gordon, who won the Division III title in the state championships on Nov. 30, passed a tired Stamps with about 500 yards left in the 5,000-meter race on her way to a time of 17 minutes 1 second.

Abby Miller, a freshman from Green Valley High in Henderson, Nev., placed second in 17:08 and Stamps was third in 17:15.

The Stanford-bound Stamps had set a course record of 16:43 in winning the state Division I title, but an opening mile of 4:58 on Saturday led to her downfall.

“I just went out too fast,” she said. “I got too excited and ran a really stupid first mile.”

In the boys’ race, Ryan Andrus of Mountain View High in Orem, Utah, pulled away from the field in the final mile for a winning time of 15:00.

Rhy Reynolds of Newport, Ore., was second in 15:12 with David Lopez of Glendale Hoover third in 15:16.

Andrus is the first Utah runner to win a West region title since the meet began in 1979.

The top eight finishers in each race advanced to the national championships at Morley Field in San Diego on Saturday.