Birmingham Girls Won’t Play It Safe

Running not to lose failed last year, so Birmingham High cross-country Coach Scott King gave his girls’ team one bit of advice for the City Section championships at Pierce College today.

Run to win.

“We have to be aggressive,” King said. “We can’t worry about who is behind us and where they are. We have to go out hard and take it from there.”

The meet will start at 8:30 a.m. with the girls’ junior varsity race. The girls’ varsity race starts at 10, followed by the boys’ at 10:30.

The top two teams in each varsity race and the top five individuals not on a qualifying team will advance to the state championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Nov. 29.

Birmingham, the 1995 City girls’ champion, entered last year’s section championships as favorites, but the Braves finished third behind El Camino Real and Bell after running a safe, conservative race.

“We ran not to lose,” King said. “A lot of the girls went out conservatively and then tried to kick it in the last half mile and it didn’t work.”

Taft upset Birmingham in the Northwest Valley Conference finals Nov. 5, but the Braves bounced back with a strong showing in the City preliminaries last week, defeating second-place Hamilton, 33-99, in their heat and posting a team time nearly three minutes faster than Taft’s.

Birmingham’s performance was doubly impressive because the Braves did it without defending City champion Tiffany Burgess, who dropped out of her second consecutive race because of an injured ankle.

Burgess, a junior, sprained her right ankle in a haunted house mishap on Halloween night. She won’t be at full strength today, but juniors Dina Melendez and Erika Dolezal are expected to lead the Braves to the title.

Melendez, whose sister Rosa placed second in the 1989 City championships for North Hollywood, had the seventh-fastest qualifying time in the prelims and Dolezal had the eighth.

Freshman Natalie Stein of North Hollywood was regarded by many as the girls’ individual favorite for much of the season, but San Pedro sophomore Valerie Flores beat her by 22 seconds in the prelims.

Belmont is favored to win its second consecutive team title--and 13th in 16 years--in the boys’ meet with Garfield, Birmingham and Monroe battling for second.

Seniors Yubini Huitz of Fremont and Kenzo Bergeron of Hamilton and junior Andre Young of Marshall are tabbed to contend for the individual title.