Glendale Gets Point Across in WSC Opening Meet

Glendale College came within a point of making a clean sweep of the men’s and women’s races in the first Western State Conference cross-country meet of the season at College of the Canyons on Friday.

Glendale, led by individual winner Eduardo Diaz, defeated runner-up Bakersfield, 27-69, in the men’s meet while the Vaquero women, paced by first place Kim Lorimer, tied Bakersfield, 68-68.

Most ties in cross-country are broken by determining which team has a higher-finishing No. 6 runner, but the WSC doesn’t break ties.

“I knew it was going to be close between us and Bakersfield in the women’s meet,” Coach Eddie Lopez of Glendale said. “I knew it was going to come down to the fifth runner and it did.”

Glendale left nothing to chance in the men’s meet as the defending state champion had six of the first eight runners after the first mile and five of the top 10 at the finish.

Diaz clocked 22:06 over the hilly, hot and dry four-mile course to defeat runner-up Brian Spangenberg of Canyons by 20 seconds.

Jorge Lopez of Glendale was third in 23:00 with Henry Briseno fifth in 23:04, Miguel Ruiz eighth in 23:14 and Walter Navarro 10th in 23:26 for the Vaqueros.

“I figured we’d score about 30 points in the men’s meet so [27] was good,” Lopez said. “Especially since [Alejandro] Lemos didn’t run very well.”

Lemos was one of six Glendale runners who followed Spangenberg for the first mile, but he finished 60th in 27:25.

Spangenberg, a 35-year-old freshman who took up running four years ago, led the field through the mile in 5:10, but Diaz, Lopez and Erik Aguilar of Bakersfield passed him shortly thereafter.

“I wasn’t worried at that point because I felt really comfortable in the first mile,” said Spangenberg, who led Canyons to a third-place total of 128 points.

That quartet ran together for about a half-mile before Diaz opened a small lead on a downhill stretch of the course.

His advantage grew to 15 seconds after three miles and he extended it to 20 at the finish.

Not bad for someone who began running during his senior year at San Fernando High and who didn’t run his first cross-country race until he came to Glendale last year.

“I never thought I could do this,” Diaz said. “I just started running because it was something to do and here it is.”

Lorimer, a freshman from Burbank High, won the women’s race with a time of 21:00 over the three-mile course after pulling away from Jeanene Gerry of Moorpark and Yadi Ramirez of Ventura in the final half-mile.

Ramirez had a small lead with three-quarters of a mile remaining, but Lorimer and Gerry passed her on the final uphill portion of the course.

Lorimer broke away from Gerry, who ran 21:10, near the top of the final ascent and Ramirez finished third in 21:44.

“I was kind of surprised I won,” Lorimer said. “I didn’t think I’d be up that high.”’

Ventura and Santa Monica tied for third in the team standings with 88 points.