CROSSROADS

Cross-country isn’t a race to Steven Murray. It’s more like a rolling chess match.

The Santa Margarita senior thinks his way through the course. He analyzes every move by his opponents, while patiently mapping out his own strategy.

“I don’t have the leg speed to outrun anybody at the end of a race,” he said. “I need to make my moves a lot sooner than that.”

A classic example of Murray’s running style was on display at the Southern Section finals last month, when he won the Division II title.

Murray held back while another runner sped away during the first mile at Mt. San Antonio College, then began filtering through the pack midway through the race. He came up on the leader just before the two-mile mark, passed him and then pulled away as the early pace began to take its toll on his closest pursuers.

“I saw him drop back a little bit and I knew it was my time to push it,” Murray said.

Whether it’s at Marquette, Drake, Syracuse or Southern Illinois, Murray, The Times’ Orange County boys’ runner of the year, plans to continue running in college, while studying for a career in television production and broadcasting. He would like to be one of those behind-the-scenes guys.

“I’d like to make it all happen in the back,” he said.

Sounds like his racing style.

Murray’s been coming from behind ever since earning second-team all-county honors as a sophomore. He was the top junior in the county last season, and the only non-senior among The Times’ first-team selections.

Murray was quick out of the gate this season, winning the Division II race at the season-opening Laguna Hills Invitational, producing the fourth-fastest time among county runners.

Murray came back the following week and finished second to Norwalk’s Puneet Mahan in the Division II senior race at the Woodbridge Invitational, equaling Edison’s Scott Brandos for the top time among county runners.

Murray finished second to Mahan in the Division I varsity race at the Central Park Invitational in Huntington Beach in early October, producing the fastest time among county runners. Mahan later won a Southern Section Division III title and finished third at state.

Santa Margarita was expected to be one of the top teams in the county after finishing ninth at the Division II state finals last season and returning their top seven runners. But injuries began to mount by mid-October and Murray was able to concentrate on individual goals.

After winning the Division II race at the county championships as a junior and producing the third-best time of the day, Murray was favored to win the sweepstakes this year, but he couldn’t match the effort of Newport Harbor’s Chris McMillen and finished second.

Murray couldn’t check off that particular goal, but he didn’t let that disrupt his others.

“Of course everyone is going to have a little disappointment here or there,” he said. “You can’t expect to be 100% every race.”

Without a doubt, Murray performed his best on the hilly layout as Mt. San Antonio College, where he was able to make up ground where others were losing it.

He had the county’s second-fastest time as a junior at the Mt. SAC Invitational, then came back this season and produced the top time among county runners, finishing fourth in the individual sweepstakes race and setting a personal best on the course by 15 seconds.

“I like the hilly courses, like Mt. SAC,” Murray said early in his junior season. “The downhill is a thing I want to work on always because that’s where you can get ahead.’

After defending his Serra League title with ease at Central Park, Murray began focusing on Mt. SAC again and the Southern Section finals, where he finished 15th as a sophomore and fifth as a junior.

His victory was one of the surprises of the meet, and he joined his brother, Michael, as the only Santa Margarita runners to win section titles. Michael Murray, a senior at Mount St. Mary’s College in Maryland, won a Division III-AA title as a sophomore in 1994 and a Division II-A title in 1995.

Murray went to Fresno alone this season because the Eagles failed to qualify, but that didn’t deter him and he took seventh in 15:41. His finish was three spots better and 11 seconds faster than last season.

“I had the best season I could ask for,” he said. “I didn’t have one bad race, which makes me real happy.”

Checkmate.