Snyders’ Solid Ground Has Westlake on Rise

A little continuity in a coaching staff can make a big difference in the success of an athletic program.

Just ask the Westlake High girls’ cross-country team.

The Warriors head intotoday’s Marmonte League showdown against Thousand Oaks and host Agoura with their best team since at least 1990. It’s not a coincidence that the husband and wife tandem of Joe and Sheryl Snyder are in their fourth season as co-coaches.

The cross-country coaches at Westlake seemed to change every couple of years after Don Shotliff resigned in the late 1980s, but the Snyders have brought stability to the program after walk-on Coach Rob Paules resigned in 1996 because of a scheduling change in his full-time job.

The Snyders’ oldest son, Joey, was a junior in the program at that time, so Joe and Sheryl figured they would coach until he graduated last year.

But at some point, they decided to continue past their son’s matriculation.

“We didn’t have a long-range plan when we started,” Joe Snyder said. “We just sort of fell into it.”

Westlake finished 11th in the Southern Section Division II championship last year after a seventh-place finish in the Division III final in 1996, but this year’s squad has superior depth to those teams.

Westlake, fifth in the Southern Section Division II poll, opened the season by winning the Division II title in the Bronco Invitational at Cal Poly Pomona on Sept. 11.

The Warriors finished third in the Division III race of the Woodbridge Invitational a week later before winning the Agoura-Oak Park Invitational last Thursday and the Righetti Invitational on Saturday.

Last week’s victories were doubly impressive because Westlake was not at full strength.

Sophomore Michala Brook, who clocked 5:12.60 in the 1,600 meters during track season after transferring from Newbury Park, didn’t run Thursday because she was sick. She wasn’t among the Warriors’ five scoring runners Saturday.

Sophomore Jenny Walls, Westlake’s No. 3 runner at Woodbridge, missed Saturday’s meet with a cold after struggling Thursday.

“We’ve got a gold mine all of a sudden,” Joe Snyder said about Westlake’s depth. “We knew we had a lot of girls coming back from last year, but we’ve also got some good freshmen.”

Sophomore Kristine Anderson and senior Katie London, 1-2 in the Righetti Invitational, are Westlake’s top returners. Freshmen Danielle Padilla and Laurie Schakett have improved the depth of a team that had plenty.

The talent could help Westlake advance to the state championships for first time since 1990, but the Snyders are trying not to get caught up in the Warriors’ early-season success.

“I’d be dishonest to say that we don’t think about [qualifying for the state championships],” Joe Snyder said. “But our first goal is for the kids to have fun so that running will become a lifetime activity for them.”

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If junior Thomas Harley of Burbank wins the boys’ title in the Foothill League finals in November, he’ll give much of the credit to assistant coach Tom Moriarty and senior Josh Spiker of Ventura.

Moriarty had Harley running 100-110 miles a week in training last summer and Spiker’s junior track season--which included the state title in the 3,200 meters--inspired him.

“I watched guys like Spiker during track and it made me think, ‘That guy is tough,’ ” Harley said. “It made me think, ‘I want to be just like him and I want to run as fast as him.’ ”

Harley, second in the Division II race of the Bell-Jeff Invitational at Griffith Park’s Greek Theatre course on Saturday, will run in the first Foothill League meet of the season at what is frequently called Griffith Park’s “Merry-Go-Round Course” on Thursday.

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A revised race schedule hurt the performances of many runners in the Bell-Jeff Invitational, including senior Rosanna Kirkendall of Lancaster.

Kirkendall won her first three races of the season but finished 11th in the Division I race at Griffith Park after the start time was changed from 11:45 a.m. to 10:25.

Jim Couch, the meet director, said a revised schedule was faxed Wednesday to all the schools in the meet, but many coaches were unaware of the changes until after they arrived at the meet.

Kirkendall had a large breakfast on Saturday because she figured she wouldn’t be racing until nearly noon.

Consequently, she suffered side cramps during the race.

“She just didn’t look like herself,” co-coach Dawn Dziuban (CQ) of Lancaster said. “For her to run 18:26 under those conditions wasn’t too bad.”

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Spiker will get his first major test of the season when he races defending champion Fernando Cabada of Clovis Buchanan in the Division I race of the Stanford Invitational on Saturday.

Cabada, a senior, defeated Spiker the first three times they raced last fall, but Spiker beat him in the state Division I final and in the Foot Locker West regional.

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The La Canada girls’ team has dropped out of Harrier magazine’s national poll.

The two-time defending state Division III champion Spartans were 17th in the preseason rankings, but are no longer in the top 25.

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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 2 Saugus (Foothill) 3 3 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 4 4 Oak Park (Tri-Valley) 5 5 Agoura (Marmonte) 6 6 Hoover (Pacific) 7 NR Ventura (Channel) 8 7 Buena (Channel) 9 8 Burroughs (Foothill) 10 9 Nordhoff (Frontier)

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GIRLS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 La Canada (Rio Hondo) 2 2 Westlake (Marmonte) 3 3 Hart (Foothill) 4 4 Nordhoff (Frontier) 5 5 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 6 6 Agoura (Marmonte) 7 7 Quartz Hill (Golden) 8 9 Canyon (Foothill) 9 10 Royal (Marmonte) 10 NR Louisville (Mission)

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