County Runners Hoping to Break Through Glass Window

In cross-country circles it’s called a window. It’s a time frame of approximately two weeks--beginning with the Southern Section preliminaries and ending with the state finals--during which runners aim to produce their maximum effort.

For many teams the window is closed, but for the county’s 39 teams and 16 individuals who will compete in the section finals Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College, the window is wide open.

“Everything this season has been geared toward running fast this weekend,” Rosary Coach Dreux Valenti said. “Going back all the way to July, I’ve been building them up and building them up. Our whole focus has been running fast at the end of the year.”

Most coaches who want their runners to peak during a certain time period trim back their mileage in the weeks before the race.

Santa Ana Valley boys’ Coach Jose Sanchez prefers more high-intensity runs over shorter intervals. His methods appear to be working because the Falcons had three runners who produced personal-best times during prelims at Mt. SAC.

“We didn’t really taper until last week and the kids are just starting to feel really good,” Sanchez said. “I think kids can maintain their performance level if you know how to rest them.”

Santa Ana Valley is ranked fifth in Division I and the Falcons’ team time was fifth-best at the prelim. They need to finish among the top six to advance to the state meet Nov. 27 in Fresno.

“For us, the state meet is a bonus,” Sanchez said. “We will be peaking for this weekend.”

Rosary is ranked fifth in Division III and must crack the top four at Saturday’s finals to advance to the state meet. Valenti has also had his runners cut back on their mileage in recent weeks and increased their time in the swimming pool.

“There’s nothing we can do this week that can help them,” Valenti said, “just some fine-tuning. I want their legs to be as fresh as can be.”

STIFF COMPETITION

Several division titles appear up for grabs Saturday, and county teams and runners should be in the thick of things.

When Ventura’s Josh Spiker was declared out for the season last week because of a stress fracture in his leg, individual honors in the Division I boys’ race became anybody’s guess.

Katella’s Danny Mejia had the second-fastest qualifying time (15 minutes 45.12 seconds) behind Lakewood’s Ozzie Pina (15:39.62), and Esperanza’s Ryan Bousquet was right behind in another heat (15:46.12). Mejia won a Division II title on the same course last season, and Bousquet was the Orange County champion last month.

In the team competition, Katella will need a huge performance from its fourth and fifth runners to topple top-ranked Chino Don Lugo, which hasn’t lost to a Southern Section team this season.

Villa Park’s Augie Escobar was third in the Division II finals last season and his time of 15:41.50 last Saturday was the division’s best.

Santiago backed up its top ranking in Division II with the top qualifying team time. Newport Harbor, the second-ranked team, narrowly made the finals after grabbing the last qualifying spot in its heat.

Jeremy Vantress of Rancho Alamitos is the lone county qualifier in Division III, but his time was third-best in the prelims.

The Woodbridge girls emerged as the favorites in Division I after their dominant effort in the prelims. The Warriors took the top four spots in one of four heats and their team time was the meet’s best.

Fountain Valley sophomore Julie Allen and Glendale Hoover’s Anita Siraki are expected to run great individual races in Division I. Allen and Siraki were the only girls to run under 18 minutes in the prelims.

Foothill and Santa Margarita are expected to battle for team honors in Division II with Brea Olinda and Newport Harbor not far behind.

Newport Harbor’s Amber Steen and Santa Margarita’s Lori Mann had the top qualifying times in Division II. Steen defeated Mann in the prelims, at the Orange County Championships and at the Woodbridge Invitational, but Mann prevailed at the Stanford and Laguna Hills invitationals and ran a better time in a separate race at the Mt. SAC Invitational.

Corona del Mar will need to hold off Ojai Nordhoff to defend its Division IV title. Northwood is ranked third in Division V and could be in the hunt if healthy.

The first four teams in Divisions II through V and the first six in Division I advance to the state finals. The section is allowed five individuals in each division; however, runners must finish among the top 20 in their divisions to qualify as one of the five.

MAYBE NEXT YEAR

When Whittier Christian Coach Steve Endemano watched his girls’ team hustle past the two-mile mark in a Division V preliminary heat Saturday, he thought the Heralds were cruising to their first section finals berth in school history.

But Endemano’s glee turned to sorrow when he arrived at the finish line and only four runners came across. Whittier Christian’s fifth runner, Tricia Clark, had collapsed from exhaustion just 40 yards from the end, leaving the Heralds without enough runners to produce a qualifying score.

Endemano said Clark was the first Whittier Christian runner to pass him at the two-mile mark, which was unusual because she’s usually about third at that point in a race.

“She just went out too hard,” Endemano said. “She typically runs the last mile a lot faster than my other girls, so when I saw her go by me in the lead, I knew she was pushing it.”

Clark had dropped back to third on the team when she collapsed. If she could have maintained that position, Whittier Christian would have made the top four in its heat and advanced to the finals because its other runners finished seventh, 12th, 16th and 45th.

The Heralds were not completely shut out, however. Ashley Plant’s seventh-place finish was good enough for her to qualify as an individual.