Glendale Displays Its Depth, Charges to Another WSC Title

Glendale College won the first two Western State Conference men’s cross-country meets of the season by 42 and 26 points, but the Vaqueros’ victory in the WSC final at Arroyo Verde Park on Tuesday might have been the most impressive of the three.

The Vaqueros had seven of the top 15 finishers.

Glendale had five of the top 10 finishers in the first WSC meet at College of the Canyons on Sept. 17 and six of the top 12 in the second at Moorpark.

That depth propelled them to a 40-79 victory over runner-up Bakersfield and clinched their third consecutive WSC title and 10th in 13 years under Coach Eddie Lopez.

Citrus was third with 141 points, followed by Ventura with 145 and Moorpark with 156.

“I feel pretty good about the way we ran,” Lopez said. “We haven’t eased up at all in training and the guys were still able to run well together.”

Jorge Lopez of Glendale, third in the first two WSC meets, finished eighth this time, but his teammates picked up the slack.

Eduardo Diaz ran 21:29 over the hilly four-mile course to finish second, seven seconds behind winner Andre Young of Santa Barbara City College.

Lopez ran 22:05, with Alejandro Lemus ninth in 22:11, Henry Briseno 10th in 22:14, Walter Navarro 11th in 22:23, Marco Arriago 12th in 22:32 and Miguel Ruiz 15th in 22:49 for defending state champion Glendale.

Diaz won the first WSC meet, but he couldn’t kept pace with the smooth-striding Young down the stretch.

Young, winner of the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters in the 1998 City Section track and field championships as a junior at Marshall High, spent most of the summer with his foot in a cast after discovering he ran with a broken bone in his foot during the last seven weeks of track season.

The injury left him woefully out of shape at the start of the season, but he’s starting to resemble the runner who finished sixth in the state Division I cross-country final last year.

After leading through the mile in 5:15 and the two-mile in 10:53, Young was passed briefly by Diaz but he quickly regained the lead.

“With a half mile to go, I tried to get away from him, but he wouldn’t let me,” Diaz said. “I knew he had a mean kick so I really wanted to get away from him before the last mile, but I couldn’t.”

Aaron Sharp of Oxnard finished fourth in 21:48. Brian Spangenberg of Canyons was sixth in 21:54 after winning the second conference meet.

Ventura, paced by third-place finisher Yadi Ramirez, was an upset winner in the women’s meet and tied Glendale and Moorpark for second in the final standings.

Bakersfield, which finished third in the race, won the overall title.

Ventura totaled 59 points, followed by Moorpark at 71, Bakersfield at 76 and Glendale at 96.

“I definitely think that running on our home course gave us an advantage,” Coach Nancy Fredrickson of Ventura said. “It can’t help but give you an advantage.”

Ramirez made a bold attempt to run away from the women’s field.

She had a six-second lead on Kim Lorimer of Glendale and a seven-second advantage on Jeanene Gerry of Moorpark after the first mile, but Lorimer took control in the next mile on her way to a first-place time of 20:46 over the three-mile course.

Gerry finished second in 21:01 and Ramirez was third in 21:11.

“It wasn’t a great race,” Lorimer said of her performance. “My legs felt kind of weak today. They felt strong when we practiced here.”