Quartz Hill Hopes Victory Isn’t False Start

The Quartz Hill High girls’ cross-country team broke quickly from the gate in winning the Seaside Park Invitational cross-country meet at the Ventura County Fairgrounds on Friday.

The question is can the Rebels perform as well in the big meets in 2 1/2 months.

Quartz Hill, led by then-senior Danielle Day, placed fourth in the 1997 state Division I final, but the Rebels have failed to even qualify for the Southern Section championships the past two years.

They ran well for the first two months of the season in 1998 and last year, but faltered at the end.

“Our goal is down the road,” Co-Coach Mike Davis of Quartz Hill said. “This was a fun and exciting meet [Friday], but that trophy doesn’t mean anything yet.”

Jennifer Yadon and Katie Schettig, freshmen on the 1997 team, paced the Rebels to a 31-second victory over Canyon on Friday.

Yadon placed second in the senior race with a time of 18:59 over the three-mile course that wound through the fairgrounds and along the sidewalk bordering the ocean.

Schettig was third in 19:01 to help Quartz Hill to a team time--the cumulative total of its top five runners from all four divisions--of 95:42.

Canyon, paced by Jazmin’s Treadway’s 18:35 victory in the junior race, placed second in 96:13.

Royal, led by Jaclyn Pedersen’s 18:12 victory in the senior race, finished third in 98:48.

Tarah Novelli, Amanda O’Neal and Lacey Troth were Quartz Hill’s Nos. 3-5 runners.

Novelli placed third in the sophomore race in 19:05.

O’Neal was second in the freshman race in 19:14 and Troth was third in 19:23.

The performances of O’Neal and Troth were particularly important because sisters Shell and Laura Blevins are no longer running for the Rebels.

Shell Blevins, a senior, underwent knee surgery recently and is not expected to run this season.

Laura Blevins moved to San Francisco to live with her mother.

“You lose a couple, you pick up a couple,” Co-Coach Geneva McClellan of Quartz Hill said.

McFarland, defending state Division IV champion, won the boys’ meet with a team time of 77:05. Canyon was second 79:24 with Santa Clara third in 81:08 and Royal fourth in 81:12.

Andres Gomez and Giovanni Perezchica of McFarland had the two fastest times of the meet.

Gomez, 10th in the state meet last year, won the senior race in 14:59 and Perezchica, 25th, took the junior race in 15:02.

Luke Llamas and Jameson Mora of Canyon finished second and third in the junior race to post the third- and fourth-fastest times of the meet.

Llamas clocked 15:14 with Mora at 15:16.

Canyon Coach Dave DeLong was pleased with his team’s performance because it came without the benefit of senior Nick Zoetewey.

Zoetewey, who won the Foothill League title for Saugus last year, is in the process of appealing a Southern Section ruling that deemed him ineligible to compete on the varsity during this school year because he transferred to Canyon during the summer.

Phillip Reid of Rio Mesa, and Jace Getskow and Leanne Riggin of Canyon were other runners from the region who won their respective races.

Reid, who won the freshman boys’ race last year, took the sophomore event in 15:28 after breaking away from Ryan Morgan of Canyon, who ran 15:37, and Tim Hearst of Royal, who timed 15:46, in the last mile.

Getskow won the freshman boys’ race in 16:37 and Riggin took the freshman girls’ race in 19:04.