Distefano Is No Run-of-the-Mill Sophomore

The Esperanza girls’ cross-country team hasn’t surprised anybody with its success this season. The Aztecs were a favorite to win the Division I state title from the beginning, and they’ve done nothing to put that in doubt.

Esperanza has also raised some eyebrows with its individual performances, particularly by sophomore Nicole Distefano, who has emerged as one of the Aztecs’ top two runners.

Distefano, projected to be fourth or fifth on Esperanza’s depth chart before the season began, continued to display remarkable improvement by winning her heat Saturday at the Southern Section preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College.

Distefano’s first-place time of 18 minutes 55 seconds on the three-mile course was one of four top-10 finishes for Esperanza runners, who combined to earn the top qualifying mark in the Division I team competition.

Distefano, who ran 19:24 at the same meet last season, credits the wealth of talent on the Esperanza team for inspiring her to improve on her times.

“A big thing that motivated me was seeing other people ahead of me and wanting to be up there with them,” Distefano said.

Senior Pam Smith, a two-time Sunset League champion at Esperanza, has been an example of how hard work can pay off.

“Running with Pam helps me lot,” Distefano said. “Knowing how determined she is and how devoted she is to running, that makes me want to run like that too.”

Distefano has finished ahead of Smith three times this season, including at the Orange County Championships, where the Aztecs won the team title. Esperanza, which is considered the deepest team in the state at any level, also finished first at the Stanford Invitational earlier this season.

“Nicole has really pulled it up a lot this year,” Smith said. “And my times are actually faster than last year on the different courses.”

Other heat winners included Costa Mesa’s Jamie Denoewer (19:26) and Corona del Mar’s Liz Morse (19:19) in Division IV, Newport Harbor’s Amber Steen (18:53) and Santa Margarita’s Lori Mann (18:26) in Division II, and El Modena’s Christine Eckstaedt (19:25) in Division III.

In the boys’ competition, Santa Ana’s Alfonso Leon continued to enjoy a remarkable season after winning his Division I heat with the second-best overall time of the meet (15:28), which helped the Saints earn the top qualifying mark. Teammate Juan Salgado, who has been battling injuries all season, finished third in the race (15:00).

“It’s hard not to be running your best times, it’s been the same times all the time,” Salgado said. “I can’t go like Alfonso is. I used to always be like three seconds behind him, now it’s like 40.”

Notes

Other county runners who posted the top time in their heats were Estancia’s Alberto Munoz (16:13) in Division IV, and Newport Harbor’s Curt Herberts (16:00) and Loara’s Jose Herrera (15:52) in Division II. Herrera ran in the same heat as Katella, the top-ranked team in Division II, and the Knights had six runners place among the top 10.