Herman, Fleshman Finish Second-Best in the West

Their pre-race attitudes differed, but the results were the same Saturday for Dusty Herman of Nordhoff High and Lauren Fleshman of Canyon in the West regional cross-country championships at Woodward Park.

Herman, a senior, was regarded as a longshot in the boys’ race, yet he led much of the race before finishing second with a time of 15:31 over the muddy 5,000-meter course.

Fleshman, a junior, was given an excellent chance to contend in the girls’ race and she placed second in 17:51 behind runaway winner Mariel Ettinger of La Grande, Ore.

The top eight finishers in each race qualified for the national championships in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., next Saturday.

Senior Elaine Canchola of Nordhoff just missed qualifying for the national championships for a third time when she finished ninth in 18:06, the same time as seventh-place Allyson Marquand of Irvine University and eighth-place Sara Bei of Santa Rosa Montgomery.

Herman’s 19th-place finish in the regional last year made him the No. 5 returning runner, but 30 runners from four divisions had a faster time than he did in the state championships on Nov. 29. He cut 25 seconds off the time that placed him fourth in the state Division IV final.

“I wasn’t thinking about just qualifying,” Herman said after becoming the second Norhoff boy in three years to advance to the national championships. “I wasn’t thinking about any of this [fifth-, sixth- or seventh-place] stuff. I was thinking top two or three. I wanted to be the man and I almost was.”

A roaring finish by Steve Smith of Chino Hills Ayala in the final 50 meters prevented Herman from winning.

Smith, a senior who finished fourth in the state Division I final, beat Herman by a second after Herman passed leader Joshua Rohatinsky of Provo, Utah, with 400 yards left.

Rohatinsky, a sophomore, led through the two-mile mark in 9:42 after Herman led at the mile in 4:41.

“I didn’t remember that being in the game plan,” Nordhoff Coach Ken Reeves said of Herman’s early surge.

Reeves was concerned Herman would overextend himself. But Herman was drawing inspiration from the words of the late Steve Prefontaine, the great American distance runner of the early 1970s.

“I did the Pre thing,” Herman said. “I said, ‘I’m going for it and catch me if you can.’ ”

Only Smith could in the race in which the gap between first and fourth was three seconds.

Ettinger had a four-second lead at one mile in 5:22 and it was 13 seconds at two miles in 11:12.

Fleshman was second at that point, leading a pack that included senior Kimi Welsh of Yucaipa, junior Trina Cox of Santa Rosa and sophomore Sara Gorton of Mt. Pointe in Phoenix.

“For the first 1 1/2 miles, I felt miserable,” Fleshman said. “I was thinking, ‘Oh no. I really want to go to Florida.’ But then I just decided to hang in there and go for it. It’s only 18 minutes of hell.”

Fleshman pulled away from Welsh (17:59), Cox (18:01) and Gorton (18:02) to finish 11 seconds behind Ettinger’s 17:40 clocking.

“We were running to qualify,” Canyon Coach Dave DeLong said. “If I had told her that we were going to finish second, we would have both had a good laugh.”

Canchola was bitterly disappointed after missing the final spot, but she could end up running in the national championships because Ettinger said she isn’t sure her mother will let her make the trip to Florida.

Rae Stumbough of Nordhoff won the girls’ sophomore race in 19:00.