Ventura’s Spiker in Fast Company With Winning Effort at Mt. SAC

Senior Josh Spiker of Ventura High made a run at the course record in the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational cross-country meet on Saturday.

Spiker, winner of the boys’ 3,200 meters in the state track and field championships in June, won the individual sweepstakes race with a clocking of 14 minutes 42 seconds. That was only 10 seconds off the 2.95-mile course record set by Jeff Nelson of Burbank in 1978.

Ten seconds might sound like a large amount of time, but it’s not much in a nearly 15-minute race.

“I can’t believe I ran that fast,” Spiker said. “I ran 15:27 here last year, so I thought something in the 15:10 range would be pretty good for this time of the year.”

Spiker, who ran 15:01 in winning the Southern Section Division I final at Mt. SAC last year, moved to sixth on the all-time course-performer list.

His nearest competitor Saturday was Ozzie Pina of Lakewood, who finished 35 seconds back at 15:17.

After leading the field through the first mile in 4:34, Spiker stretched his advantage descending a portion of the course known as the switchbacks.

“I really worked the downhills,” Spiker said. “My coach stresses to go steady on the uphills and work the downhills and I pretty much did that.”

Spiker’s race started five minutes after senior Matt McIvale of Ramona of the San Diego Section clocked 14:53 to win the team sweepstakes race and move into a tie for ninth on the all-time performer list.

“That gave me something to shoot for,” Spiker said. “But I still didn’t expect to run that fast.”

Chino Don Lugo, led by fifth-place Arturo Garcia, romped to the team sweepstakes title with an 88-133 victory over Clovis.

Garcia, a junior, clocked 15:22 with senior Mike Serratos 11th in 15:30 and senior Nick Branen 14th in 15:34 for the Conquistadores, the No. 2-ranked team in the state Division I poll behind Belmont, which finished fifth with 163 points.

Juniors Sara Bei of Santa Rosa Montgomery and Alejandra Barrientos of Felton San Lorenzo Valley turned in the top performances in the girls’ meet.

Bei, third in the Foot Locker national championships last year, won the individual sweepstakes race for the second consecutive time with a 17:05 clocking. Junior Anita Siraki of Glendale Hoover was second in 17:23, junior Valerie Flores of San Pedro third in 17:33.

Barrientos won the team sweepstakes race in 17:13 to lead San Lorenzo Valley to a 77-99 victory over Corona del Mar.

Bei’s time, the same as she ran last year, was 10 seconds off the course record set by Julia Stamps of Santa Rosa in 1995.

“I didn’t feel as strong as I had hoped,” Bei said. “But I wasn’t expecting to feel great because we haven’t done as much speed work this year as we had at this point last year.”

Barrientos’ time is fourth on the all-time course performer list and senior Abby Miller of Henderson Green Valley (Nev.) moved to ninth with her 17:17 clocking in second.