Bell-Jeff Meet Becomes Big Under Guidance of Couch

From 12 schools and three races in 1974 to an expected 100 schools and 19 races on Saturday, the Bell-Jeff Invitational cross-country meet at Griffith Park has undergone a lot of changes in 25 years.

The one constant has been meet director Jim Couch.

Couch, in his 25th season as Bell-Jeff cross-country coach, founded the meet in 1974 because he wanted to give small schools a chance to compete in an invitational where they would be the main attraction, not a sideshow to the large schools.

“We wanted them to be treated on an equitable level with the large schools,” said Couch, 46.

The meet still includes many of the top small schools in Southern California, but it also attracts some high-quality large schools.

Long Beach Poly, the defending state Division I boys’ champion, and Thousand Oaks, the No. 4-ranked girls’ team in the Southern Section, will run in the Division I races.

So will Birmingham, the defending City Section girls’ champion, and Canyon, led by Lauren Fleshman.

Couch’s duties as meet director will require him to be at Griffith Park from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, but he has no complaints.

“Whenever you’ve got a opportunity to give cross-country athletes and coaches a chance to compete in a meet that they enjoy, it’s worth the time and effort,” he said.

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The Division I races of the Southern Section championships could have larger fields when the meet is held at Mt. San Antonio College on Nov. 21.

That’s because the Southern Section cross-country coaches’ advisory committee recently voted to let 15 teams, instead of the usual 13, advance to the finals if 50 or more teams run in a particular division in the section preliminaries.

The change was proposed because a record-109 Southern Section schools are competing at the Division I level.

Many of those schools won’t qualify for the prelims because they’ll be unable to place among the top three in their respective leagues or they won’t receive an at-large berth, but enough are expected to advance to push the number above 50.

“We just thought it was fairer to let more teams into the finals,” said Hal Harkness, the Southern Section championships meet director. “As it was, some pretty good teams weren’t going to make it.”

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The Top Five

Rankings of regional cross-country teams

BOYS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 Saugus (Foothill) 2 2 Nordhoff (Frontier) 3 3 Notre Dame (Mission) 4 4 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 5 5 Camarillo (Pacific View)

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GIRLS

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RK LW School (League) 1 2 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 2 1 La Canada (Rio Hondo) 3 4 Simi Valley (Marmonte) 4 5 Birmingham (West Valley) 5 3 Canyon (Foothill)

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