Nordhoff Takes Another Run at Title

Victor Ochoa and Dusty Herman.

Dusty Herman and Victor Ochoa.

It’s hard to mention one without the other when discussing the Nordhoff High boys’ cross-country team. Today they’ll try to lead the Rangers to their fourth title in five years in the state championships at Woodward Park.

Ochoa and Herman posted a 2-3 finish in the Southern Section Division IV championships at Mt. San Antonio College last Saturday to pace Nordhoff’s 40-117 victory over runner-up Estancia, but the Rangers are expected to get a sterner test this afternoon when they race McFarland for the second time this season.

Nordhoff hammered McFarland, 44-109, in the Division IV sweepstakes race of the Mt. SAC Invitational on Oct. 24, but the Cougars’ No. 3 runner did not compete.

McFarland will be at full strength today, running on its home course and shooting for an unprecedented sixth consecutive state title.

“They seem to be the best [Division IV] team outside of the Southern Section,” Nordhoff Coach Ken Reeves said of McFarland. “I expect them to be a team to be reckoned with.”

Although Ochoa and Herman are Nordhoff’s team leaders, they had different views toward running when they arrived at the Ojai school as freshmen.

Ochoa wanted to become part of the Nordhoff tradition after watching his half brother, Pablo Garcia, help the Rangers to the state Division IV title in 1991.

Herman, a soccer player since he was 5 or 6, balked when Reeves asked him to go out for cross-country after he’d run 5:52 in the mile in a physical education class.

“I basically said, ‘Yeah, right,’ ” Herman said. “I had never thought of myself as being a runner. Coach Reeves told me that if I trained with him, I might be able to break five minutes in the mile by the time I was a senior. I thought, ‘I’m not a five-minute miler.’ ”

It wasn’t long until Herman was.

After not running during the 1994 cross-country season, in which Ochoa was the sixth man on a team that won its second consecutive state Division III title, Herman clocked 4:56 in the 1,600 meters in track and became hooked on running.

He placed eighth and Ochoa finished 11th in the 1995 state Division III cross-country title race to help Nordhoff win its third consecutive title. They were fourth and seventh in the Division IV race last year when the Rangers finished third behind Corona del Mar and Livermore Granada.

Along the way, Herman and Ochoa became best friends.

While Herman is high-strung, talkative and fiercely competitive, Ochoa is low-key, soft spoken and “too nice of a guy” at times, Reeves said.

Despite their differences, they’ve combined to form one of the best tandems in the state at any level and will try to give Nordhoff its fifth state title of the 1990s.

“[Dusty and I] want to run really fast and I hope

we do good as a team,” Ochoa said. “We’d really like to win again.”

The Nordhoff girls’ team will be going for their third consecutive title.

Although top-ranked Moraga Campolindo is favored, the Rangers upset Corona del Mar, 43-55, in the Southern Section final last week.

Undefeated senior Elaine Canchola of Nordhoff is favored to win her second individual title in three years.

The Quartz Hill girls’ team and the Saugus boys’ squad will be making their first appearances in the state championships--which started in 1987--but both are expected to contend for top-three finishes.

Quartz Hill, the No. 6-ranked team in the West region, is tabbed to finish third behind No. 1 Yucaipa and No. 5 Esperanza in the Division I race, just as it did in the Southern Section final.

Saugus is ranked fifth in the state in Division II but defeated No. 3 Mission Viejo and No. 4 Katella in winning its first Southern Section title since 1985 last week.

Junior Lauren Fleshman of Canyon, senior Danielle Day of Quartz Hill, freshman Natalie Stein of North Hollywood and junior Kim Garnic of La Canada are some of the notable girls from the region who will run today.

Fleshman finished second and Day placed third behind Yucaipa senior Kimi Welsh in the Southern Section final. Stein won the City Section title at Pierce College.

Garnic won the Southern Section Division III title and will be shooting for a top-five finish today.

Flintridge Prep senior Doug Hall will try to improve upon his fifth-place finish from last year in the Division V boys’ race.