Hess Kicks It Into Gear Past Pedersen

Without a doubt, soccer was Kelley Hess’s No. 1 sport when she began her freshman year at Thousand Oaks High.

That was no longer the case Friday after Hess won the girls’ race in the Marmonte League cross-country finals at College Park in Oxnard.

Hess, who has played soccer since she was 7, clocked 18:03 over the three-mile course to upset Royal freshman Jaclyn Pedersen by seven seconds and lead Thousand Oaks to its fourth consecutive title in her first season of running.

“Soccer was going to be my main priority at the start of the season,” Hess said. “But now it’s even.”

Pedersen had beaten Hess by 13 seconds or more in several meets this season, but she couldn’t stay with her rival in the final half-mile Friday.

“I imagined myself getting close to her and passing her when I was stretching before the race,” Hess said. “But I really wasn’t sure it was going to happen.”

Thousand Oaks, paced by the 1-5-7 finish of Hess, senior Erin Sorensen and junior Melissa McBain, totaled 42 points to win. Camarillo placed second with 75 and Simi Valley was third with 86.

The top three teams and the top three individuals among the top six finishers not on a qualifying team automatically advanced to the Southern Section preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College on Nov. 15.

Thousand Oaks also won the boys’ meet, totaling 43 points to the 91 of second-place Agoura and third-place Simi Valley. Agoura finished second because the Chargers’ sixth runner finished 29th while Simi Valley’s was 36th.

Sophomore Seth Neumuller placed second in 15:43 for Thousand Oaks while senior Ryan Meuse of Simi Valley won in 15:37.

Meuse, who didn’t run in last week’s Ventura County championships because he was on a recruiting trip to Stanford, ran 15-20 yards off the lead pace for the first two miles before surging into the lead with 1,000 yards left.

“I have a tendency to go out really fast in the first mile and then be dead at the end,” Meuse said. “But today I went out a little slower and it paid off.”