Lesson in Conservation Pays for Lanning in Section Finals

If you want to run your best over Mt. San Antonio College’s 2.95-mile course, you have to be under control during the first half of the race.

Going too quickly during the flat first mile and up a portion of the course known as the switchbacks can have painful consequences in the second half of the race that includes two major hills.

Jason Lanning of Buena High has known that for some time, but he didn’t have the confidence to run that way until the Southern Section finals at Mt. SAC on Saturday.

That’s when Lanning, a front-runner throughout his career, stayed behind the lead pack for the first 1 1/4 miles of the Division I boys’ race before finishing sixth in a school-record 15:22.

“I didn’t push up the [first two hills],” Lanning said. “I didn’t try to go anywhere. I just stayed relaxed and comfortable.”

David Guenther, an assistant at Buena, told Lanning before the race not to worry if he were as far back as 20th at two miles. He’d still have time to catch many of the runners who went out faster than him.

“It wasn’t easy,” Lanning said. “There were times in the race when I was thinking, ‘Go. Go. Go.’ I had to calm myself down and wait till the last mile to really start pushing it.”

A look at Lanning’s place during various points in the race reveals how well he implemented Guenther’s plan.

He was in 21st place at the top of the switchbacks, in 17th at the base of aptly named “Poop-out Hill” just before two miles, in 12th after cresting “Poop-out” and in eighth at the base of “Reservoir Hill” with about 1,100 yards left in the race.

“It takes a lot of confidence to run that way,” Lanning said. “And I was just never sure that I’d be able to finish strong like that.”

The Ventura County championships at Lake Casitas on Oct. 29 was an example of the way Lanning’s front-running tactics often hurt him.

He led senior Josh Spiker of Ventura for the first three-quarters of a mile before finishing fourth in 16:00, well back of Spiker’s 14:53 course record over the three-mile layout.

His reserved start on Saturday helped him crush his previous best at Mt. SAC by 26 seconds, break the Buena record of 15:42 set by Derik Vett in 1985 and gain his first berth in the state championships at Woodward Park in Fresno on Saturday.

“That was the first time that he’s really run his kind of race,” Coach Ray Seay of Buena said. “David and I have been trying to get him to run that way all [season], but he always wanted to be up with the best runners at the start of the race. It was really nice to see him run the way he did.”

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If the depth of good performances in the Division I boys’ and girls’ races at the Southern Section finals seemed unusually deep, it’s because they were.

Forty-three boys broke 16 minutes in the Division I final and 21 girls ran under 19 minutes in their race, the highest totals in the section finals since at least 1985 (Sorry, this writer’s records go back only to 1986).

The best previous totals during that time were 28 boys in 1994 and 14 girls in 1997.

Overall, 75 boys broke 16 minutes and 46 girls bettered 19 in the five divisions on Saturday, again the highest total since at least 1985.

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Veteran coach Bill Duley of Agoura has had runners sidelined with various leg injuries over the years.

But he experienced a first last week when senior Mike Berns missed the Southern Section Division II final with an eye injury.

Berns, Agoura’s top runner in the section preliminaries, suffered the injury when a small piece of chain-link fencing hit him in the eye while being used as a Hacky Sack.

Agoura, the No. 8-ranked Division II team in the state, placed a disappointing 11th in the final without Berns.

“We wanted to [finish among the top four teams and] make it to state,” Duley said. “But there were so many fast teams in that race that I don’t think we would have made it even with him running a good race.”

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The Nordhoff and La Canada girls’ teams placed second in their respective races in the Southern Section finals, but it was hard to fault their performances.

Nordhoff lost to Corona del Mar in the Division IV final, but the cumulative time of the Rangers’ top five runners was 96:37, their fastest at Mt. SAC since a 95:04 clocking in the 1995 section finals.

Defending champion La Canada was beaten by South Hills in the Division III final, but the Spartans’ team time of 97:34 was 11 seconds faster than its state title team ran last year.

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The Top 10

Rankings of region cross-country teams

BOYS

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

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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 Canyon (Foothill) 4 4 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 5 7 Louisville (Mission) 6 5 Westlake (Marmonte) 7 6 Ventura (Channel) 8 8 Royal (Marmonte) 9 NR Agoura (Marmonte) 10 9 Quartz Hill (Golden)

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