Stein Runs Second, Perhaps by Design

Like riverboat gamblers wary of revealing the cards up their sleeves, Valerie Flores of San Pedro High and Natalie Stein of North Hollywood posted the top two girls’ times in the City Section cross-country preliminaries at Pierce College on Tuesday.

Flores, a junior who was second to Stein in the 1997 City final, clocked 17:57 over the three-mile course to defeat Stein by two seconds in the first of two heats. Neither appeared to put forth an all-out effort.

“Valerie wasn’t supposed to win that race,” Coach Bruce Thomson of San Pedro said. “We just wanted her to run a controlled race.”

Stein, a sophomore, finished 28 seconds ahead of Flores in the individual sweepstakes race of the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational on Oct. 24. She had a seven- or eight-yard lead on Flores midway through this race.

“Probably,” Stein said when asked if she could have run faster. “My team did very well. I think everyone got their best times.”

North Hollywood finished second to defending City champion Birmingham, 34-63.

The top five teams in each heat and any individual in the top 15 not on a qualifying team advance to the City championships on Nov. 21 at Pierce.

Dina Melendez was third in 18:41, Tiffany Burgess finished fifth in 19:37 and Erika Dolezal came in seventh at 20:11 for Birmingham.

Granada Hills was a nonqualifying seventh with 173 points.

The Highlanders were expected to advance to the City final, but junior Nicolette Viray didn’t run because of sore shins.

Viray, defending City swimming champion in the 200-yard freestyle, has run superbly in her first cross-country season. She was expected to battle for a top-five finish in the City championships after running 18:44 to win the Northwest Valley Conference title.

Freshman Carla Perea of El Camino Real placed second in 19:32 in the second girls’ heat and Taft was fourth in the team standings with 98 points.

Birmingham placed five runners among the first 14 finishers to win the first boys’ heat with 46 points.

Junior Ruben Ruiz, who transferred from Chatsworth after moving into the Birmingham attendance district two weeks ago, placed first with a career best of 15:53 over the Pierce course.

Junior Leon Buchanan of Monroe placed fifth in 16:06 in heat two to help the Vikings to a third-place total of 109 points.

Belmont, the No. 4-ranked Division I team in the state and the three-time defending City champion, placed first with 54 points, followed by Garfield with 77.