Barons Hope a Step Down Leads to Step Up in County

Fountain Valley graciously forfeited its trophy after winning the Division II girls’ varsity cross-country race Saturday at the Central Park Invitational in Huntington Beach.

Fountain Valley, which hosted the meet, moved itself out of the Division I race earlier in the week due to a scheduling conflict with two of its runners, who had club soccer games. The Barons entered their full squad in the less-competitive Division II race, which began about 2 1/2 hours later.

Fountain Valley, which competes in Southern Section Division I and races in the top division at most invitationals, placed four runners in the top 32 and defeated La Jolla by 54 points. During the awards presentation, Fountain Valley Coach Barry Migliorini said his team couldn’t accept the trophy.

“We feel really crummy that we dropped our girls down from Division I to Division II,” Migliorini said. “So we’re going to forfeit the first-place trophy.”

The Barons still hope their performance was strong enough to earn a spot in next week’s sweepstakes race at the Orange County Championships.

The Barons mainly wanted to run at full strength so they could produce a strong team time and persuade race directors to include them in the 15-team sweepstakes race this Saturday at Irvine Park.

Fountain Valley boasts The Times’ Orange County runner of the year from last season, junior Julie Allen, who won Saturday’s race in 17 minutes 31 seconds and has broken four course records this season, but the Barons are a borderline top-15 team.

If Fountain Valley is left out of the sweepstakes race, it will water down the individual competition and prevent some potentially great battles up front. Seniors Amber Steen of Newport Harbor and Lori Mann of Santa Margarita have never raced against Allen in a high school meet.

Steen won the sweepstakes race last season, but her time was 11 seconds slower than that of Allen, whose team ran in the Division II race. Mann finished second in the sweepstakes race last season and was an all-county selection for the second consecutive year.

Mann showed up Saturday expecting to race against Allen, but found out shortly before the race that Fountain Valley was running in Division II. Mann produced a solid effort anyway, finishing second in the Division I race in 17:50. Lynn Dixon of Manhattan Beach Mira Costa won the race in 17:44.

Sonora had five runners in the top 18 and won the Division II boys’ varsity race by 64 points over Lompoc. Pacifica’s Steven Naughton won the race in 15:45.

Santa Margarita’s Steven Murray had the top time among county runners, finishing second in the Division I varsity race in 15:18. Norwalk’s Puneet Mahan finished first in 15:16.

The Fountain Valley boys’ team finished third in the team standings, one spot ahead of Santa Margarita.

At the Temecula Valley invitational:

Fogal wins--Mission Viejo senior Daniel Fogal won the three-mile boys’ varsity race in 16:51 and junior Jacob Gustafsson was third in 16:57 to help the Diablos finish third in the team standings behind Temecula Valley and Rancho Cucamonga.

Loara finished sixth, led by Salvador Herrera, who was 15th in 17:29.

At the Clovis Invitational:

Kelly finishes fifth--Marina’s Vanessa Kelly was the top Orange County finisher at Woodward Park in Fresno. Kelly ran the 3.1-mile course in 19:05.

Brea Olinda had the top team finish for an Orange County school, finishing ninth among 27 teams.

Tustin’s Alonso Smith finished 18th out of 295 runners in the boys’ division; his time was 16:07. The Tustin team finished 12th, highest among Orange County schools.