Proceed With Caution

Jamie Newman has won her first three cross-country races of the season while posting three of the four fastest times of her career over Pierce College’s rugged three-mile course.

But the El Camino Real High junior remains guarded about her future.

Can she contend for a top-three finish in the City Section championships at Pierce on Nov. 22?

“Hopefully,” she said.

Ask how fast she thinks she can run by the end of the season and her reply is, “We’ll have to wait and see how things go.”

Newman’s caution is understandable, considering what she has endured during the past year and a half.

As a freshman in 1995, Newman won the City cross-country title by 19 seconds over Tiffany Burgess, then a Birmingham High freshman.

But Newman’s left knee, which she had fallen hard on twice in the seventh grade, began to ache during the 1996 track season. The pain wasn’t severe enough to prevent her from running, but it forced her to curtail her training.

Her performances were proof of that.

After dominating the City cross-country championships, she finished seventh in the 1,600 meters, eighth in the 800 and 10th in the 3,200 in the ’96 City track finals.

The pain in Newman’s knee got so bad last cross-country season that she was forced to drop out of several early-season races. But she persevered and placed 27th in the City final--a minute and a half behind Burgess, the winner--to help El Camino Real win its first title.

“I thought about taking a break from running,” Newman said. “But it’s hard to sit there and watch everyone else running when you’re not. Plus, I thought I could still help the team.”

The pain in her knee became impossible to run through earlier this year, however, and Newman underwent arthroscopic surgery in February.

The surgeon smoothed out some roughness underneath her kneecap during the surgery and also trimmed away small tears in her cartilage.

The repairs didn’t result in instant improvement, but Newman got better as the track season progressed and ran a career-best 2:23.46 to place fifth in the 800 in the City championships in May.

That was followed by a solid summer of training and a personal-best tying time of 19:14 in her first meet of the season Oct. 1.

Then came an 18:57 clocking that defeated Burgess on Oct. 8 and a 18:54 victory against Taft on Monday.

The victory over Burgess was viewed by some as redemption for Newman, but the soft-spoken, straight-A student didn’t see it that way.

“I had been hoping to run at least as fast as I did as a freshman, so I’m happy,” Newman said. “But I didn’t have a goal to beat this person or that person.”

Newman’s cautious attitude is tempered by her past and by the fact that she still isn’t training at the level she’d like because of her knee.

Her doctor has forbid her to run on hard surfaces such as cement to reduce the pounding on the joint. So while her teammates conduct many of their training runs on the streets of Woodland Hills, Newman circles the dirt track at El Camino Real.

“I’d like to do what they’re doing,” she said, “but realistically I can’t this season. So I just have to make the best of what I’m doing.”