Fillmore Boys Stating Their Case

Good times could be here again for the Fillmore High boys’ cross-country team.

The Flashes, once a fixture at the state cross-country championships at Woodward Park in Fresno, could advance to the state meet on Nov. 25 for the first time since 1995 based on their fifth-place finish in a loaded Division IV sweepstakes race of the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational in Walnut on Friday.

Fillmore won the state Division IV title in 1990 and placed among the top 10 every year between 1992-95.

“It seemed like we use to go every year,” Coach Epi Torres of Fillmore said. “But things just haven’t worked out that way the last few years.”

Fillmore, the No. 3-ranked team in the Southern Section Division IV poll, was not highly regarded at the start of the season because cousins Everardo and Rene Magana were the team’s only returning runners who broke 17:30 on Mt. SAC’s 2.95-mile course last year.

But Torres has taken advantage of an error in a class schedule and the closeness of several friends to give Fillmore a deep team this season.

That depth was evident at Mt. SAC, where Fillmore was one of only two teams from the region that had five runners break 17 minutes. Nationally-ranked Canyon had six.

The Flashes accomplished that without junior Rene Magana, who is academically ineligible, and without junior Mario Torres, who missed the meet because he was working.

Rene Magana was Fillmore’s No. 2 runner during the first part of the season and Torres has been their No. 3, 4 or 5 performer. But the Flashes turned in their best race of the season at Mt. SAC, thanks to an impressive 21-second time gap between their Nos. 1 and 5 runners.

“I was kind of surprised that they ran as well as they did,” Torres said. “But we’ve got some young guys who have shown a lot of improvement.”

Senior Everardo Magana and junior Juan Ortega were Fillmore’s Nos. 1 and 5 finishers at Mt. SAC with times of 16:37 and 16:58 while first-year runners Geno Hammer, Juan Mejia and Benito Magana-- another cousin--clocked 16:42, 16:45 and 16:46 for the Flashes.

Hammer, a freshman, intended to play football for Fillmore, but was mistakenly put in the cross-country class at the start of the school year.

Mejia, a sophomore, is one of three friends from the Rancho Sespe housing projects that Torres recruited out of a physical education class.

“Geno had no intention of running cross-country,” Torres said. “But I asked him to try it for two weeks, and if he didn’t like it, he could switch classes to football.”

Mejia and friends Gerardo Bravo and Armando Rodriguez were initially cold to Torres’ recruitment, but gave in two weeks later.

Benito Magana, a sophomore who knew the trio from an English class, joined the program shortly thereafter.

“As soon as I was able to convince one of them to come out, the others followed,” Torres said. “I don’t think any of them wanted to do it by themselves, but they were willing to give it a try together.”

Torres, who is in his 24th season coaching at Fillmore, finds himself with a team that is ranked seventh in the state with only one senior among its top seven runners.

“I’m hoping that we can get back to the state championships and [finish among the top 10] there,” Torres said. “And then work together as a team next year and shoot for the top five.”

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The Canyon boys’ team is basically as fast as the Thousand Oaks squad that won its second consecutive state Division I title in 1994 . . . if you count only the top four runners.

The Nos. 1-4 runners on the 1994 Thousand Oaks squad ran 15:16, 15:18, 15:19 and 15:34 at Mt. SAC to give the Lancers their third consecutive Division I title while Nick Zoetewey, Luke Llamas, Jameson Mora and Ryan Morgan of Canyon clocked 15:13, 15:19, 15:23 and 15:35, respectively, to help the Cowboys to a second-place finish behind Long Beach Poly in the team sweepstakes at Mt. SAC on Saturday.

The No. 5 position is the big difference between the teams.

Josh Carolan clocked 15:42 for the 1994 Thousand Oaks squad that was ranked second in the nation by Harrier magazine, and Mark Bingham ran 16:39 for No. 9-ranked Canyon on Saturday.

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It remains to be seen if the Quartz Hill girls’ team will top its fourth-place finish in the 1997 state Division I final.

But this year’s squad, ranked third in the state, has already run faster as a group at Mt. SAC.

The 1997 team compiled a team time--the cumulative time of its top five runners--of 96:21 to place third in the Southern Section Division I final. The Rebels ran 95:08 on Saturday to finish fourth in the team sweepstakes.

Jenny Yadon and Katie Schettig were Quartz Hill’s Nos. 3 and 5 runners in both meets.

Yadon ran 19:24 as a freshman in 1997 and 19:01 on Saturday with Schettig at 19:51 and 19:21.

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Phillip Reid of Rio Mesa moved to 12th on the all-time Mt. SAC sophomore performer list on Saturday when he placed sixth in the individual sweepstakes with a school-record 15:28 clocking.

Reid, defending Pacific View League champion, ranks fourth on the all-time region sophomore list behind Dave Hartman of Canyon, who ran 15:19 in 1988, Jon Spilman of Simi Valley, 15:24 in 1977, and Bryan Dameworth of Agoura, 15:25 in 1987.

Hartman held the sophomore course record until Saturday when Eric Maldonado of Chino Don Lugo ran 15:15 in the team sweepstakes.

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The Top 10

Rankings of cross-country teams from the region

BOYS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 Canyon (Foothill) 2 2 Oak Park (Tri-Valley) 3 3 Royal (Marmonte) 4 6 Newbury Park (Marmonte) 5 5 Nordhoff (Frontier) 6 7 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 7 4 Santa Clara (Frontier) 8 8 Camarillo (Pacific View) 9 9 Burbank (Foothill) 10 NR Fillmore (Tri-Valley)

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GIRLS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 Quartz Hill (Golden) 2 2 Canyon (Foothill) 3 3 La Canada (Rio Hondo) 4 4 Royal (Marmonte) 5 6 Nordhoff (Frontier) 6 5 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 7 8 Agoura (Marmonte) 8 7 Ventura (Channel) 9 10 Simi Valley (Marmonte) 10 NR Highland (Golden)

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