Camarillo Boys Like Pacific View From Top

The Camarillo High boys’ cross-country team has no intention of releasing its grip on the Pacific View League title it won the last two years.

The Scorpions demonstrated that last Thursday with a runaway victory in the first league meet of the season at Mission Oaks Park.

With junior Brandon Lucero finishing first and sophomore Johnny Zendejas placing third, Camarillo had six of the top 10 finishers to total 24 points.

Rio Mesa and Hueneme were regarded strong challengers to Camarillo entering the meet, but finished a distant second and third with 50 and 55 points.

“I went out there hoping that we’d be able to grind out a win,” Coach Mike Smith of Camarillo said. “But it turned out that we ran one of the best races we’ve run as a team in a long time.”

Lucero and Zendejas, third and ninth in the league final last year, were expected to give Camarillo a healthy 1-2 punch this season. But the Scorpions’ No. 3-7 runners played a big role in last week’s lopsided victory.

With sophomore Kenneth Benson finishing fifth, junior Josh Martin placing sixth and seniors Tim Rockey and Antonio Galvez in ninth and 10th, Camarillo had six runners in front of the No. 3 runner for either Rio Mesa or Hueneme.

Camarillo’s margin of victory was “unbelievable” to Zendejas because he and Lucero are the only returning varsity runners.

Junior Chris Kuhlman ran varsity at the end of last season, but he won the junior varsity race last Thursday.

Erik Rogers and Kyle Poe were juniors on the team last year, but Rogers is a wide receiver on the football team this season and Poe chose not to run.

Camarillo would have had a solid top three runners with Rogers, but his absence hasn’t devastated the Scorpions, thanks to Benson, Martin and others.

Benson was prohibited from running for Camarillo last year because he was an intra-district transfer from the Rio Mesa area.

He was Camarillo’s No. 5 runner in a season-opening meet against Newbury Park, Agoura, Crescenta Valley and Agoura on Sept. 7, and the Scorpions’ third-fastest runner the last two weeks.

Martin wasn’t on the seven-man varsity roster in the opener, but he was Camarillo’s No. 5 runner--based on time--in the Woodbridge Invitational on Sept. 16 and its No. 4 performer in the league meet.

Rockey, the Scorpions’ No. 5 runner in the league meet, was their No. 3 runner in the opener while Galvez was the team’s No. 4 runner in the first two meets and No. 6 last week.

“This is one of those teams where we could have a lot of different guys running at the varsity level during the course of the season,” Smith said. “I’ve got about 12 guys I can go to.”

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Lucero is undefeated this season, but he is not a cross-country veteran.

He didn’t compete in the sport as a freshman and went out for track only after being cut from the freshman baseball team.

He ran a promising 4:51 in the 1,600 meters in 1999 before finishing third in the league cross-country final in November.

His progress continued in track this year when he lowered his best in the 1,600 to 4:30.92 and won the league title after missing several weeks of training with strained muscles in his right hip.

He won his first two races this season, including the Division II junior race of the Woodbridge Invitational. But his biggest victory might have been last week because it came against sophomore Phillip Reid of Rio Mesa, the defending league champion and a 9:34.76 performer in the 3,200.

“Beating him gave me a lot of confidence,” Lucero said. “But I would rather have had the team win and me come in second than me win and the team come in second.”

Smith, who is in his 19th season at Camarillo, says the 5-foot-11, 134-pound Lucero is kind of a gangly kid who can look a little stiff when he runs.

He adds, however, that he is not afraid to push himself.

“He has that desire to just go as hard as he can,” Smith said. “He’s not always going to win, but if anyone is going to beat him, they’re going to have to run very hard.”

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Seniors Natalie Stein of North Hollywood, Daniel Clements of Taft, German Ortiz of Monroe and Chris Wells-Anders of El Camino Real are expected to run today when the first City Section meets of the season are held at Pierce College.

Stein, who has finished first, second and second in the last three City championships, will run against El Camino Real and South Gate.

Clements, second in the boys’ 1,600 and 3,200 in the City track finals in May, will run against Birmingham, Bell and Palisades.

Ortiz, sixth in the City final last year, will run against Kennedy.

Wells-Anders missed the second half of last cross-country season because of a knee injury, but ran a school record 1:52.28 in the 800 to place second in the state championships in June.

The meets begin at 2:30 p.m.

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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 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 3 3 Oak Park (Tri-Valley) 4 4 Newbury Park (Marmonte) 5 7 Nordhoff (Frontier) 6 6 Royal (Marmonte) 7 5 Santa Clara (Frontier) 8 9 Camarillo (Pacific View) 9 10 Hoover (Pacific) 10 8 Rio Mesa (Pacific View)

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GIRLS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 Quartz Hill (Golden) 2 2 Canyon (Foothill) 3 3 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 4 4 La Canada (Rio Hondo) 5 5 Royal (Marmonte) 6 6 Nordhoff (Frontier) 7 7 Ventura (Channel) 8 8 Louisville (Mission) 9 9 Crescenta Valley (Pacific) 10 10 Newbury Park (Marmonte)

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