Gerry Lowering Her Times Like Clockwork for Camarillo

Of the 1,031 runners from 159 schools that will compete in the Southern Section cross-country championships at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut on Saturday, few will be on a streak like that of Jeanene Gerry of Camarillo High.

Gerry, a senior, has run four consecutive career bests over three courses since late in October to establish herself as one of the top runners in Ventura County.

“She’s on fire,” said girls’ Coach Sam Pinuelas of Camarillo on Monday. “About [2 1/2 weeks ago], she just started to run really, really well.”

Gerry’s career-best rampage--which might have happened sooner had she not missed 3 1/2 weeks of training last summer because of a knee injury--started in the Mt. SAC Invitational on Oct. 24 when she ran 19:01 over the three-mile distance to finish second in a Division I heat.

Then came an 18:41 clocking to finish fourth in the Ventura County championships at Lake Casitas in Ojai on Oct. 30, a 17:46 effort to win the Pacific View League title at College Park in Oxnard on Nov. 5 and an 18:42 time to place second in a Division I heat of the Southern Section preliminaries at Mt. SAC last Saturday.

The latter time at Mt. SAC was 21 seconds better than Gerry ran to finish 15th in the 1997 section final on the same course, and Pinuelas expects her to run faster this week.

“Chances are very good she’ll do that because of the way she ran the other day,” Pinuelas said. “She ran [19 seconds] faster than she did [in the Mt. SAC Invitational] and nearly all of that improvement came [in the last half-mile]. . . . I think she can go out faster in the first two miles this week and still finish well.”

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When senior Pablo Gallegos of Hueneme placed fourth in a Division I heat of the Southern Section preliminaries, he became the first Viking to advance to a section final since Anthony Williams in 1986.

Williams, who defeated then-freshman Bryan Dameworth of Agoura to win the 1986 Ventura County title, placed second in the section’s 4-A Division final that year.

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The Canyon boys’ team was a notable nonqualifier at the Division I level in the section preliminaries after running very well in the Mt. SAC Invitational and the Foothill League finals.

The Cowboys were hurt when flu-hampered freshman Luke Llamas, their No. 1 runner for much of the season, failed to finish. But they also ran poorly as a team.

“There’s a fine line between being ready and wanting [to advance to the section final] too much,” Coach Dave DeLong of Canyon said.

“The guys went out too fast. They were too jacked up.”

Llamas’ performance was indicative of Canyon’s eagerness. He came through the mile in 4:46 a day after having a temperature of 103.

Not surprisingly, his legs turned to jello a half-mile later and his teammates pulled him off the course.

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The Top 10

Rankings of cross-country teams from the region

BOYS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 Saugus (Foothill) 2 2 Nordhoff (Frontier) 3 5 Ventura (Channel) 4 3 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 5 4 Notre Dame (Mission) 6 8 Buena (Channel) 7 NR La Canada (Rio Hondo) 8 6 Camarillo (Pacific View) 9 9 Agoura (Marmonte) 10 10 Lancaster (Golden)

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GIRLS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 La Canada (Rio Hondo) 2 2 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 3 3 Canyon (Foothill) 4 4 Royal (Marmonte) 5 5 Nordhoff (Frontier) 6 7 Louisville (Mission) 7 8 Birmingham (West Valley) 8 10 Crescenta Valley (Pacific) 9 NR Hart (Foothill) 10 9 Newbury Park (Marmonte)

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