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10/23-24/98 at Mt. San Antono College, Walnut CA 51st Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational
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| BOYS | 1-2 Ind. | 1-2 Team | Div 3 | Div 4 | Div 5 |
| GIRLS | 1-2 Ind. | 1-2 Team | Div 3 | Div 4 | Div 5 |
Always a high-light of the Fall Cross-Country season, the 1998 Mt. SAC Invitational was the biggest ever prep affair in the United States, with over 14,000 athletes from over 450 schools taking part. With the Foot Locker Western Regional on this course in early December and the Southern Section (over 400 schools with the sport) having its Section Meet here, participation is always very high. Some great action took place led by a group of outstanding Girl runners, with a surprising quality of Boys Team Times showing up in the Sweepstakes event. Friday’s weather was ideal, clear and cool, with Saturday’s Sweepstakes events under 75 degree, cloudy weather, with only the Girls Team Sweepstakes event affected by a sudden warming.
Corona del Mar (Newport Beach) showed its superiority over this year’s group at this level, with a controlled race win with an impressively low 37 point total (100:27), with 2:12 800m runner Liz Morse the individual winner for Coach Bill Sumner’s group at 19:26. Nordhoff (Ojai) was next as a team with 83 (103:05), with tall Alex Guerrero (Hughson) looking good in second at 19:31.
Angela Petersen (Francis Parker, San Diego) dominated here with an 18:38 win, with the 10:58 3200m runner racing a fine 18:38 to win over seventh grader Heather Iaturo (Tri-Valley, Grahamsville, NY) (19:22), the latest family member star of the Coaching team of Joe and Missy Iaturo from New York. Chadwick (Palos Verdes) was the team winner with 66 points (105:48). University (San Francisco), the State’s #1 ranked squad here was making headlines the next day in the Saturday overall Team Sweepstakes event.
Girls Division III Sweepstakes
La Canada, the nation’s #16 ranked team off its big Stanford Invite win and best team time there, was more than mildly impressive here. LC smoothly rolled to a 34 point total (that’s pretty close to winning the race against the whole field put together!) and a 97:53 team time. Alli Valle (San Luis Obispo) continued her impressive season with an 18:47 win over Katie Moon (Lompoc) 19:11. La Canada can challenge as the best overall team in the state.
A great team race was contested here, with Nordhoff (Ojai), "re-loading" this fall after losing three top state placers from last year, sneaking in ahead of Estancia 106 (83:28) and Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) 107 (83:48) with 92 points (83:45). The State’s #1 ranked team Riverbank, was an interesting "no-show," with the Sac Joaquin Section power ripping Invitationals apart all across the state thus far this Fall. 4:19 1600m runner Kevin Lelles (Notre Dame, SO) stalked Estancia’s 9:26 3200m runner, Alberto Munoz 15:44-15:47.
Hopi, the #4 ranked team overall in Arizona blew in and blew everyone out, totalling 40 points and an 82:34 team time that is probably the fastest ever at this level. Coach Rick Baker later commented that his squad did not really know how good the California squads were, so they kind of held back as a group for the first part of the race (their first four was abreast as they came onto the airstrip at 1 � miles), then raced the last part of the event. The Crossroads (Santa Monica) brother duo of Jeff (15:41) and Mike (16:03) Tomlinson went 1-2 individually over T ? Iaturo (Tri-Valley, Grahamsville, NY) (16:07.
Andrew Hill (Los Altos) was out just under 4:40 for the mile here, and raced the contest basically alone, with the smooth-striding Central Coast Section star racing 15:20 for the win. One was left with the sense that with competition Hill could run significantly faster. The State’s #1 ranked squad, Don Bosco Tech (Rosemead) was the winners here with 76 points (82:13). Los Gatos shocked with its improvement to second here (98 - 82:48), with wily Coach Willie Harmatz finally putting together the potential the squad has been talked about having for some time.
Saturday 10/24
Boys Division I & II Team Sweepstakes
Nine of the State’s top ten ranked division I teams and two of the top four Division II teams would hook up to settle rankings on the course. Long Beach Poly is ranked eighth in the nation, with Santa Ana also among the country’s top twenty five. The action, under perfect weather, was mildly hot, with the fastest team times run here in some time. Long Beach Poly, defending State Division I champs, frightened with a 67 point total and 78:48 team time that may mark them as truly one of the nation’s top couple of teams. The 78:48 is the number six team time ever run by a Southern Section squad, with most ahead of them on the all-time list considered the nation’s best when they ran it. The 15:46 average on this tremendously tough three mile hill course would equate out to its five scoring members under 15:00 on a flat three mile course. Martin Conrad led the Poly group at 15:24, with Aaron Durham 15:38, Tyler Noesen 15:44, and amazing frosh Oscar Mendez racing the #4 ninth grade time ever on the Mt. SAC course with his 15:45 for fifteenth. West Hills (Santee), led by individual second placer Evan Fox (4:16 1600 two years ago before injuries last spring) at 15:23, shocked with their 115 (79:58) in second (less than thirty teams in history have run under 80:00 here). Katella (Anaheim), not here, handled Poly at Stanford 103-110 for its #6 national ranking.
Alfonso Leon of Santa Ana, leader of the squad ranked as high as third nationally earlier in the year (but fading to eighth as a team in this race), looked great in winning in 15:06, just off the "top-40" all-time list on the course.
Boys Division I & II Individual Sweepstakes
Fernando Cabada (Buchanan, Clovis) and Justin Willingham (Beyer, Modesto) set the early pace, with the 4:13.3 1600m runner Willingham last year a State Div III Cross Country Champ for East of Manteca. A talented early pack included 4:13 miler Ryan Mack (Ukiah), with Serra of San Diego’s Marcus Chandler sitting back a ways. As the race went from the flat first mile up over the tough switchback loop Chandler crept up to the lead pack, with he and Willingham battling over the last half of the race. Chandler emerged the winner in a fine 15:09 with Willingham next at 15:16 and Cabada at 15:19, with the trio seeming competitive for West team berths here in the Regional in December.
Girls Division I & II Individual Sweepstakes
Attention was particularly drawn to this race, which featured three from last year’s Foot Locker Nationals (Sara Bei, Lauren Fleshman, and Sarah Gorton). Gorton raced in Phoenix in a city meet the day previous to this contest. A large pack came through the mile in the mid-5:20’s, with favored Bei (she had been blasting last year’s times on different courses) sitting back about eighth through that point. During the switchback loop, Bei, easy to spot in all red, edged up and past all of those ahead of her, racing down on to the airstrip with a slight lead over Fleshman. Continuing to press up over the two tough hills (poop-out and Reservoir) that complete the course, Bei edged out to an 80 meter win over Fleshman, winning at 17:05-17:19. Julia Stamps has the Course soph record at 16:58, with Amy Skieresz previously #2 there at 17:24 before Sara’s run. Kristen Gordon raced 16:58 in 1996 here, with Stamps 16:55 in 1995 for the CR—Bei now sits #3 all-time with two years to go. Stamps used to just blast from the gun, with first miles well under 5:15, so Sara’s 17:05 was interestingly more impressive, showing an ability to really change gears in the middle of the race. To average 5:41 per mile over this hilly three mile course after a mid-5:20’s first mile shows the ability to really scoot over some mountains! Fleshman’s time is #8 all-time on the course, putting her among some select company. Gorton, running her second race in as many days, was third at 17:28, inside the top twenty all-time here.
Girls Division I & II Team Sweepstakes
The very interesting Saturday continued here. The clouds parted for this contest, with the temperature suddenly rising about 10-15 degrees into the mid 80’s, making it a definite factor to the tune of probably 15-20 seconds slower per athlete. Abby Miller, the Nevada star (Green Valley HS, Henderson), who two years ago shocked with a third at the Foot Locker Nationals before injuries last year, has returned with a vengeance, here charging out at 5:15 for the first mile. 1997 Foot Locker Finalist Trina Cox (Santa Rosa) could never really edge close enough to establish contact with Abby, with the Nevada star eventually winning 17:41-17:47.
The team contest was very interesting, with #12 nationally ranked Yucaipa slightly ahead of University of San Francisco through the mile and a half. Uni is an interesting story, with Coach Mike McManus’s 299 student private school group taking the last two State Div V Girls’ titles by monstrous margins and sometimes moving to higher divisions with varied levels of success during the Invitational season. The Uni group made up for it all here, hanging very tough during the final mile and a half that includes two very tough hills, holding on while Yucaipa faded. Uni ended with 104 points (97:22 team time), a 19:27 average, light years faster than any school of that size has ever run on this course. Uni is led by 5:04.65 1600m runner Kira Morser, second for the team today, with three others of the top ten from the State’s Div V championships returning from last year—they are the real deal! The heat probably held the team time down by at least a minute. Peninsula (Rolling Hills) ended up second with 147 (99:27), with Yucaipa next at 166 (99:54).
The Foot Locker course here will be 5000 meters, finishing with a near lap on the track, a neat touch, but making time comparisons to the deep history of this area not possible.
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