Hueneme Gets Back in Running

Juan Hernandez has brought respectability back to the Hueneme High boys’ cross-country program, 36 years after leading El Monte Arroyo to the Southern Section 2-A Division title as a runner and 26 years after coaching his alma mater to the 3-A championship.

A junior-led Hueneme squad placed 12th among 23 teams in the Ventura County championships at Lake Casitas in Ventura last Friday, but the Vikings won the sophomore title and had the third-place finisher in the freshman race.

That bodes well for the future of a program that hasn’t advanced to the section championships since the mid-1980s.

“Our goal is to try and make it to the [Southern Section Division I final],” Hernandez said. “That’s a big goal and the kids will have to run their best race of the season in the prelims to do it. But I wouldn’t make it a goal if I didn’t think they were capable of it.”

Hernandez, 53, teaches physical education at Oxnard College and is in his fourth season as a walk-on coach at Hueneme.

He was the cross-country and track coach at Oxnard College from 1975-91, but those programs were cut along with several others in 1991 because of financial considerations.

He missed coaching and took the Hueneme job in 1996, jumping at the opportunity to coach alongside girls’ Coach Lupe Reyes-Castillo, who competed under Hernandez at Oxnard.

Hueneme struggled at first, but that didn’t concern Hernandez as much as trying to increase the number of boys in the program.

The 1997 varsity was led by then-junior Pablo Gallegos and had six freshman lettermen, including Cristobal Sanchez, Israel Bojorquez and Michael Rivera.

Gallegos won the inaugural Pacific View League title last year, leading Hueneme to a fourth-place finish in the five-team league.

Rivera, Sanchez and senior Braulio Mejia paced the Vikings to second-place finishes behind defending champion Camarillo in the first two league meets this season.

The league finals will be held at College Park in Oxnard on Thursday.

“It was easier than I thought it was going to be to get the kids out,” said Hernandez, who recruited many of his runners from P.E. classes at Hueneme. “We’ve got our numbers up [to about 40 boys] and I’ve always believed that in quantity you have quality.”

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The aftereffects of bronchitis limited senior Nicole Richardson of Camarillo to a 96th-place finish in the Ventura County championships.

Richardson placed ninth in the 1997 county championships and 11th last year, but her 22:45 clocking on Friday was nearly 3 1/2 minutes slower than her best over the three-mile course.

“I knew she wasn’t 100% but she wanted to give it a shot,” girls’ Coach Sam Pinuelas of Camarillo said. “She said she felt OK when she was warming up, but she knew when she got out in the race that she was in trouble.”

Pinuelas expects Richardson to run better in the league final Thursday.

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They don’t give medals for the first mile of a three-mile race.

The Westlake girls’ team learned that in the Ventura County championships when the Warriors faded from first to third in the last two miles.

Westlake held a 66-101 lead over Nordhoff based on the places of its top five runners after a mile, but its lead shrunk to 89-93 at the halfway point.

Nordhoff, defending state Division IV champion, had a 80-107 lead over the Warriors at two miles and eventually beat runner-up Thousand Oaks, 66-104, for the team title. Westlake was third with 119.

“The girls are really disappointed,” co-Coach Joe Snyder of Westlake said. “But I know they tried as hard as they could and that’s all that matters.”

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Mike Navarro of Burroughs is expected to run in the Foothill League final at Griffith Park on Thursday after missing the Santa Clarita and Mt. San Antonio College invitationals last month because of breathing difficulties.

Navarro, a junior, collapsed after finishing 13th in the second league meet at lower Castaic Lake on Oct. 14. Coach John Peebles kept him out of the Santa Clarita and Mt. SAC meets until he received medical clearance.

“He’s going to run,” Peebles said of Navarro, Burroughs’ No. 1 or 2 runner for most of the season. “He’s not 100%, but he’s good to go.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Top 10

Rankings of region cross-country teams

BOYS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 Oak Park (Tri-Valley) 2 2 Canyon (Foothill) 3 3 Nordhoff (Frontier) 4 5 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 5 6 Hoover (Pacific) 6 7 Camarillo (Pacific View) 7 4 Ventura (Channel) 8 8 Buena (Channel) 9 9 Agoura (Marmonte) 10 10 Burroughs (Foothill)

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GIRLS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 Nordhoff (Frontier) 2 2 La Canada (Rio Hondo) 3 8 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 4 4 Canyon (Foothill) 5 3 Westlake (Marmonte) 6 5 Louisville (Mission) 7 6 Agoura (Marmonte) 8 9 Quartz Hill (Golden) 9 10 Crescenta Valley (Pacific) 10 NR Royal (Marmonte)

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