Bethke, Royal Lead Way

Brandon Bethke does not expect every race day to be like the one Saturday at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational cross-country meet. For now, the Lake Forest El Toro senior will revel in a breakout performance on the revered course.

Bethke continued his strong season with a victorious time of 14 minutes 30 seconds to edge defending champion Mark Matusak of Los Angeles Loyola to win the Division I-II boys’ individual sweepstakes race and lead El Toro to the race title.

His winning mark was only two seconds off the course record shared by Ryan Hall of Big Bear and Mohamed Trafeh of Duarte on the challenging 2.91-mile course in use at Mt. SAC since 1999.

“This is awesome,” Bethke said. “It’s very humbling. I’m just trying to live up to the legacy of other runners like Ryan Hall and Mohamed Trafeh.”

Emerging as a top contender to win the upcoming Southern Section and state meets, Bethke used a strong kick in the final 400 meters to blow past a fading Matusak, who ran 10 seconds slower than his winning 14:38 time last year.

“We were all pushing each other up front, and it could have been any of us,” said Bethke, who set a course record in winning the Orange County Championships last week at Irvine Regional Park. “I wasn’t thinking about a time. I just wanted to come out and run a good race.”

Simi Valley Royal used superior depth to win the Division I-II boys’ team sweepstakes race and finish with the best team time in any division. Royal easily beat Dana Point Dana Hills, 92-122, with Madera third at 133. Senior Dylan Jaedtke wasn’t happy with his 10th-place finish, but the Highlanders received strong performances from their fourth and fifth runners -- junior Jason Pedersen was 23rd, and sophomore Danny Benson tied for 30th in their course debuts.

“We want [state] pretty bad,” Jaedtke said. “We’ve been close so many times.”

Chino Don Lugo, the defending Division I state champions, settled for fourth despite having three runners among the top nine. The Conquistadores did get a victory as senior Fitsum Tesfa won his fourth race of the season in a time of 14:43.

Murrieta Valley took advantage of the absence of Fountain Valley and Ventura in the girls’ team sweepstakes race to edge Chino Hills Ayala, 122-138. The race provided the day’s most thrilling finish as Palmdale Highland junior Alyssa Craft lunged past Clovis Buchanan sophomore Lauren Saylor at the finish line.

Marie Lawrence of Reno (Nev.), who finished second in the Foot Locker national meet a year ago, set a course record for a sophomore in winning the girls’ individual sweepstakes race in 16:48. Alma Escobar of Corona finished third in 17:24.