Camarillo Comes Together To Win Raider Invitational

Things are starting to look up for the Camarillo High boys’ cross-country team.

The Scorpions have four returning runners from last year’s team that won the inaugural Pacific View League title, but injuries prevented them from using their top seven runners in three of their first four races this season.

They were all together Friday and it resulted in a narrow victory over Righetti in the Raider Invitational at College Park.

Camarillo and Righetti each totaled 87 points in the 13-team meet hosted by Channel Islands High, but the Scorpions won because their No. 6 runner--senior Pat Bocash--placed higher (34th) than Righetti’s (46th).

Buena, paced by individual winner Jason Lanning, finished third with 89 points, followed by Rio Mesa with 99 and San Diego with 105.

“I’m happy to see my top seven guys running together again,” said Mike Smith, Camarillo’s 18th-year coach. “I feel like we had a good day. I ran the kids real hard [in a Wednesday workout], so they were running tired.”

Senior Shad Hopkins paced Camarillo with a ninth-place time of 16:36, followed by sophomore Brandon Lucero in 10th in 16:40 and junior Erik Rogers in 12th in 16:53.

Senior Danny Finley finished 27th in 17:11 and sophomore Chris Kuhlman was 29th in 17:12 to round out the Scorpions’ scoring runners.

The course was supposed to be three miles, but it was about 200 yards longer because it was laid out incorrectly.

Several coaches figured something was amiss when senior Lanning crossed the finish line in 15:45, which was substantially slower than he was expected to run over the flat, fast course.

“He thought he had a chance at breaking 15 minutes,” Coach Ray Seay of Buena said. “So he said to me afterward, ‘Coach, I felt like I was running a lot faster than that.’ ”

Buena, the No. 8-ranked team in the region by The Times, was upset by Camarillo and Righetti in the team race, but the Bulldogs ran without No. 4 runner Aaron Torres, who won the freshman-sophomore race in 17:14.

Buena would have beaten Camarillo and Righetti if Torres had run the same time in the varsity race.

The Bulldogs were without their top runner in the girls’ race because senior Cathy Dunne was sick, but totaled 69 points to defeat runner-up Arroyo Grande, which had 77.

Camarillo, paced by first-place Nicole Richardson, placed third with 92 points.

Richardson, a senior, pulled away from senior Emerald Nixon of Channel Islands in the last mile to win the girls’ title by six seconds in 19:25.

Sophomores Emily Bernath and Ashley Polakovic finished seventh in 20:06 and eighth in the 20:14 for Buena with freshman Rachele McDonald 11th in 20:18.

Freshman Stephanie Cecena placed 21st in 20:49 for the Bulldogs with senior Sarah Paine 22nd in 21:00.

“The girls ran well as a group today,” Buena assistant Michelle Lewis said. “I told them before the race to really try and run together as a pack for the first mile and they did that.”