Mt. SAC Invitational - 1984

Realize the current prep runners were not born yet but they had the meet anyway!

Mt. SAC Invitational

Twenty years ago (1984 Fall) the Southern California area was basking in the after-glow of the super Los Angeles area Summer Olympic games, with the Olympic Trials and Games keeping anyone going in an excited manner about Track and running during the preparation period for the fall cross-country season.

The Mt. SAC weekend of October 26-27 in that 1984 season was looked forward to with its usual aniticipation as a gathering of the best from around the State. We were still a few years away form a California State CC Meet, so it was a chance to compare the different sections out on the course. Coach Jack Farrell of Thousand Oaks was establishing a fine program at his Ventura County school, kind of setting a tone for that area that has continued down until today, with the 1984 meet, kind of a “Lancer-centered” show with teams and individuals from his program prominent on both the boys and girls side of the meet. The meet was split into Friday-Saturday portions even in those days, with an evolution from Girls on Friday and Boys on Saturday in the 1970’s to the Smaller Schools on Friday (Division I 0-999 students – yes the smaller schools had the Div I name!), with Division II (1100-1300) and Division III (1400 on up) on Saturday, with sweeps action both days!

Friday’s boys sweeps action featured the Titans of San Marino HS, with Coach Phil Ryan’s squad led by Stuart Thompson, who eventually ran down early leader John Trefecanty of Cathedral (LA) during a 15:51 win. San Marino totaled 82:54 as a team to win easily over close by La Salle (Pasadena) 84:47. Girls’ Friday action went to frosh Roberta Moronez (Azusa), with the age-group star an 18:47 winner of San Marino’s Ann Beman 19:12. Nordhoff (Ojai) took the Girls team title with a 103:09 team time, fastest of the day!

Saturday was another hugely anticipated event, with the super Jesuit (Sacramento) program down from the Sac Joaquin section, with the fine junior twin duo of Mark (4:13 as soph) and Erik (9:11 as soph) Mastalir, leading Coach Walt Lange’s squad that was without a couple of its scorers this day. Jim Harvath (Thousand Oaks), a 9:50 something two miler the year previous, had come out charging this Fall, including a victory over defending State 1600 and 3200 star Roman Gomez (Belmont, LA) a couple of weeks back! In the Team Sweeps event, Harvath raced away early to a 15 yard lead after a 4:48 mile, with 75 yards over the Masatlir duo as the race headed towards “Poop-out” and two miles. Jim would win at 15:10, the #29 time ever recorded on the old Mt. SAC course, with Mark (15:17) and Erik (15:18) Mastalir next for Jesuit. Thousand Oaks was 136 points (80:42 weekend’s quickest) for the Team Sweeps race win, with Saugus next with a team time of 80:55, the weekend’s second fastest overall.

The Boys Sweepstakes race had a Ventura county slant to it also, with Westlake’s Paul Myers, continuing a successful fall, leading through the mile at 4:48. William Feliciano of Cypress, a 4:14 1600 runner the previous spring, worked his way up to Myers by mile two, and the Orange county athlete was strongest over the tough final mile on the way to a 15:21 Feliciano -15:27 win over Myers —the 15:21 was the weekend’s #4 time overall!

The Girls Saturday Team Sweeps event had a Thousand Oaks slant also, with Christy Farrell, Coach Jack’s daughter, a part of a strong front group chasing early leader, Kat Prince of Rubidoux. Lisa Rizzo (Hart, Newhall) eventually won over a strong group with an 18:14, with Tracy Wright (Irvine) 18:19, Sharon Plante (Arroyo Grande frosh) 18:19, Farrell 18:21, and Prince finishing out the top five. Buena (Ventura), led by Tammy McCarty (18:32) and Michelle Lewis (18:36) took the Team Sweeps event for the young ladies (96:17 #8 Team All-Time), with Thousand Oaks next 97:12.

The Girls Individual Sweeps featured super frosh Tracey Williams (Mountain View, El Monte), with the 4:45 8th grade 1500m runner making a dent already on the high school scene during her first year. A youngster, Tracey only 13-years old as a high-schooler, and here she raced away to a 50 yard lead through a 5:30 first mile. Williams cruised along comfortably to an 18:13 “fastest of weekend” win with the #20 time ever run on this course up to that time.

State rankings at the end of the 1984 season had the Thousand Oaks boys second ranked statewide behind Lassen (Susanville), with “super-coach” Bob Wall having a Northern Section squad that took the Northern Cal Championships (yes there was an all inclusive Nor Cal title run from all sections, but no Southern California title meet before the state meet). Lassen set a Sierra College Team Time record with a 79:08 run to win over Clovis (9 points back). TO improved to 80:06 in Section action at Mt. SAC in winning the 4A Division title down south, with Saugus 3A titlists (don’t ask me how they named these divisions big and small up and down the number chains over the years)! On the girls’ side it was Newport Harbor (Newport Beach), who came back from some mid-season injury problems to take Buena for the SS Div 4A title, ranked #1 statewide (with Buena #2), with Los Gatos, the Nor Cal Champs at 97:13 at Sierra College #3 in State, and Thousand Oaks adding a #4 ranking for the Girls’ squad! Both James Harvath and Christy Farrell of Thousand Oaks made the Kinney (not Foot Locker in those days) National Championships, with Eric Mastalir (Jesuit) a fine 6th place (#3 jr in the nation), and Rebecca Chamberlain (Leigh, San Jose) a strong 2nd on the Ladies’ side as a junior in that National Championship run in San Diego!

Some Jack Farrell Coaching Articles - Thousand Oaks mentor had some well-thought out ideas that he applied during as successful a prep coaching career as anyone in United States over the decades - some interesting reading that may challenge generally accepted training guidelines - Late Season Training - Re-Thinking Hard-Easy Training - Training Implications of Stride Length Analysis -