Taking Big Strides

Cassie Ramirez of Highland High has come a long way in her short time as a distance runner.

Ramirez, a sophomore who won the Golden League girls’ cross-country title last week, competed in softball, basketball and volleyball in elementary and middle school, and was a member of Highland’s freshman volleyball and basketball teams during the 1998-99 school year.

She had given little thought to running until she went out for the Highland track and field team earlier this year after failing to make the Bulldogs’ junior varsity softball squad.

She wanted to be a sprinter, but girls’ Coach John Johnston had her train with the distance runners after watching her run.

“You could see she had talent,” said Johnston, in his sixth season as the Highland girls’ cross-country coach.

Ramirez ran promising times of 5:25.7 in the 1,600 meters and 11:46.81 in the 3,200 as a freshman, and she has continued to improve in her first cross-country season.

“She has real good form,” Johnston said. “She runs really smooth, but she doesn’t have a lot of experience. She has a lot of heart, but she just needs more experience.”

That heart was evident in the Golden League final at Pelona Vista Park in Palmdale.

Senior Rosanna Kirkendall of Lancaster, who has run 5:04.62 in the 1,600, surged to a 25-yard lead over Ramirez on a downhill portion of the course just before the two-mile mark, but Ramirez battled back to win by 25 seconds with a 19:58 clocking over the three-mile distance.

“I wasn’t expecting to win,” Ramirez said. “I just wanted to hang with the lead pack as long as I could.”

As the race proceeded, Ramirez became more confident.

When Kirkendall pulled away from her, she realized she desperately wanted to win.

“I remember thinking, ‘I want this bad,’ ” Ramirez said. “ ‘She’s not too far ahead of me. I can still get it.’ ”

Ramirez was so far ahead of Kirkendall at the finish that several spectators mistook her for her more renown teammate, senior Rachel Guerrero.

“I had no idea I was ahead by that much,” Ramirez said. “A lot of people were calling out Rachel’s name so I thought she was real close to me. I was thinking we were going to go 1-2, but when I turned around at the finish and no one was there, I was like ‘Oh my goodness.’ ”

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Ramirez’ recent success has led to questions about how she compares to former Highland standout Andrea Neipp.

“It’s not fair to compare,” Johnston said. “Cassie is one of the best runners in the Golden League. Andrea was one of the best runners in the nation.”

Neipp, whose college career at Brigham Young has been derailed by a hip injury, won the 1996 state Division II cross-country title for Highland. She placed third in the 3,200 in the 1997 state track championships and ran 10:19.55 in that event.

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Josh Spiker of Ventura High, one of the top high school cross-country runners in the nation, will miss the rest of the season because of a stress fracture in his right lower leg.

Spiker, the defending state champion in the boys’ 3,200 meters in track, had won six of seven races this season, but he didn’t run in the Channel League finals last week because of pain near his right knee.

He did most of his training on a stationary bike or in a pool last week, but an MRI on Tuesday revealed the fracture in his tibia.

“He’s disappointed, but he’s had a couple of weeks to prepare for this,” Coach Bill Tokar said. “We kind of suspected all along that [the injury] might be this.”

Spiker ran a superb 14:42 in winning the individual sweepstakes race of the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational on Oct. 23 and set a course record of 14:53 in winning his second consecutive Ventura County title at Lake Casitas in Ventura six days later, but he experienced severe pain in his right leg the next day.

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The Top 10

Rankings of region cross-country teams

BOYS

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

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GIRLS

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

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