Gleason Out Front All Season

Mark Gleason made an immediate and lasting impression on the Orange County prep cross-country scene this fall.

Gleason, a junior at Mission Viejo, started fast, winning the first invitational of the season at Laguna Hills High, and he never looked back.

He won individual titles at the Orange County Championships and the Southern Section Division II finals.

Gleason, The Times Orange County boys’ runner of the year, is considered by many to be among the West Coast’s top prep distance runners.

“This year, I’m just going out to work out and concentrate on running and nothing else for the 2 1/2- to three-hour time period,” said Gleason, speaking before the season, on his rededication to the sport. He also participates in wrestling and track and field.

He won his Division II junior race at Laguna Hills by 30 seconds (15 minutes 27 seconds), recording the second-best time of the day by a county runner, behind only Nick Russell of Orange.

Gleason seemed to improve each week.

At the Woodbridge Invitational a week later, he won a grade-level race, winning the Division III title in a personal-best three-mile time of 15:12. It was the day’s best time.

During the week preceding the Dana Hills Invitational, Gleason predicted he would lower his three-mile personal-best time to less than 15 minutes. He made good on his promise, running the course in 14:41 for the fastest time of the day.

From the opening gun, Gleason led the field at the Orange County Championships three weeks later at Irvine Regional Park. He finished the 3.05-mile course in 15:05, defeating runner-up Russell by eight seconds.

“If I started worrying about [Russell], I wouldn’t have won, so I didn’t look back,” Gleason said after the race.

A week later, Gleason shocked himself by posting a time of 15:22 on the hilly, 3.1-mile course at the Mt. San Antonio Invitational.

“I wasn’t really looking for a certain time,” he said, “but a 42-second improvement on this course? I can’t believe it. I was surprised.”

The junior raced through the South Coast League dual-meet season undefeated and won the league finals race by a 44-second margin, the largest margin of victory in any league boys’ race in the county.

Gleason used a familiar strategy to win the section Division II final on the “rain course” at Mt. SAC.

He took the lead and never looked back. Only 14:20 later, he had won his first section title, finishing seven seconds ahead of--you guessed it--Russell.

Gleason put the finishing touches on his season by finishing as the top junior in the state Division II finals (fourth place, 15:36) and the Foot Locker Western Regionals (14th, 15:39).