Moorpark Runners Hope for One More Surprise

Jesus Villavicencio of the Moorpark College men’s cross-country team has a confession.

He and his Raider teammates stunned themselves by defeating San Diego Mesa and Glendale to win the Southern California junior college title at Irvine Regional Park on Nov. 8.

“We went down there thinking we were going to get third,” Villavicencio said of the 32-team race. “We didn’t think we had a chance to win. I mean, Mesa had beaten us by 36 points the first time we raced and stomped us by 50 the second. And Glendale had beaten us [four] times so we were figuring we were going to get third.”

So how did Moorpark total 89 points to defeat second-place San Diego Mesa, which had 106, and third-place Glendale, which had 108?

First, the Raiders kept the gap between their first runner--seventh-place Villavicencio--and sixth--29th-place Danny Oliva--to 38 seconds.

Second, they had fun.

“That’s been our goal all year,” said Villavicencio, a sophomore. “To go out there and have a good time and give it 100%.”

Staying relaxed could be more difficult in the state championships today at Woodward Park in Fresno for Moorpark, San Diego Mesa and Glendale are again expected to battle for the team title.

Although the Raiders are shooting for their second consecutive championship, Villavicencio has stressed to his freshmen teammates all week that winning isn’t everything.

“I’ve told them that it’s just a race,” Villavicencio said. “It’s not something that’s going to affect our life. So just go out there and have a good time.”

Villavicencio’s words sound more like those from a veteran coach than a 21-year-old junior college athlete, but first-year Moorpark Coach Doni Green says they reflect his personality.

“He’s a very mature individual,” Green said. “He’s intelligent.”

Some of that maturity could be attributable to the fact that Villavicencio has worked for the past four years to help his family.

While Villavicencio accepts the necessity of working 36-40 hours a week, he wonders how well he could have run at Moorpark if he’d had more time and energy for training.

“I’m sure that if I could have done more in training, I could have run much, much better,” he said.

Green, an assistant track coach at Moorpark from 1991-97, says Villavicencio has done plenty, especially for someone he’d never heard of until the fall of 1995.

Green met Villavicencio in a track class he was teaching in the fall semester of 1995 and joined the Moorpark track team in the spring.

“He told me he was from Bakersfield, but he had moved to Simi Valley with his parents,” Green recalled. “I said, ‘All right. You moved to the right place.’ ”

Villavicencio, who ran 4:27 in the 1,600 meters and 9:51 in the 3,200 as a senior at Bakersfield South High, placed fourth in the 3,000 steeplechase in the 1996 Southern California championships and eighth in the state final.

In cross-country, he finished 20th in the state championships to help Moorpark win its first state title in Coach Manny Trevino’s final season.

In his sophomore track season, he placed seventh in the steeplechase in the state championships in May.

He has been the Raiders’ first or second runner in seven of eight cross-country races this season and is one of the team leaders along with sophomores Uzziel Gray and Danny Oliva.

“He speaks his mind,” Green said about Villavicencio. “He’s not afraid to ask why we’re doing a certain workout which I’ve always respected in an athlete.”

Villavicencio’s opinions have led to some heated discussions between him and and Moorpark assistant Eleazar Hernandez, but Villavicencio might be closer to Hernandez than anyone else on a tight-knit team.

“They have different philosophies about training,” Green said. “Jesus comes from a speed-oriented background and Eleazar comes from a high-mileage, strength one, but they have a lot of respect for each other.”

Although Villavicencio says he’s feeling no pressure to lead Moorpark to a second consecutive state title, he admits that a win would cap an unexpected two-week run for the Raiders.

“Before we had run any races [this season], we just wanted to get to the state meet,” Villavicencio said. “We hadn’t thought at all about winning.”