Llamas Keeps Making All Right Turns

Nothing Luke Llamas accomplished during the recently completed cross-country season surprised Dave DeLong, his coach at Canyon Country Canyon High.

Not winning the Southern Section Division I title.

Not placing second in the state Division I final.

Not leading the Cowboys to dominating victories in the section and state championships and a No. 2 national ranking.

Llamas, who placed 12th in the West region championships, did surprise DeLong in the first week in November. That’s when he bypassed a ride on the team bus to the Foothill League finals so he could spend an extra hour in school to complete extra-credit work.

“I told him that I never thought I’d see the day when he would ask to stay in school longer than he had to,” DeLong said. “He looked at me and said, ‘You know, you’re right.”’

That doesn’t mean Llamas, The Times’ boys’ runner of the year, was ever a poor student. But he was satisfied with being a decent one as a freshman and sophomore.

“My older sister [was a great student],” Llamas said. “But I saw how hard she had to work, staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning sometimes to study for tests. Being a B student was OK for me.”

Llamas, who now earns A’s in most of his classes, had a similar attitude toward running during that time.

DeLong told him he had the potential to earn an NCAA Division I scholarship, but soccer remained his favorite sport.

Things began to change during Llamas’ junior year when running became his primary focus during cross-country and track seasons.

He still enjoyed soccer, earning all-league honors as a left midfielder, but he placed second in the Southern Section Division II cross-country final and won the 3,200 meters in the Division II track and field championships.

His conversion to a runner continued when he decided to give up soccer and ran up to 100 miles a week last summer while training with teammates Jameson Mora and Ryan Morgan.

He finished second to the highly regarded Mora in the senior race of the season-opening Seaside Park Invitational in Ventura, but was the Cowboys’ top runner in the rest of their major races.