1986 Mt. SAC Invitational

October 24-25, 1986
Walnut

 

1986 Mt. SAC Invitational

October 24-25, 1986
Walnut

20 Years Ago!!
By Doug Speck

Some great competition took place twenty years ago in the Mt. SAC Invitational.  This was the year before they started the state meet, with this competition one of the few times teams from around the state really came together, with this late October date a good one in sorting out who was "the best," from around the Golden State.  The "Kinney" Cross Country series sorted out the individual action in November and December, but for most areas the Section meet was the end of the line.  The Northern part of the state did have a State Championship in those days, with Vacaville (Boys) 80-83 winners over Del Campo (Fair Oaks) and Leland (San Jose) 97-101 winners over Madera on the Girls' side.

Mt. SAC featured Friday and Saturday action over three divisions in those days, with Sweepstakes action highlighting the second day of action.  Eventual Kinney National Champ Marc Davis (San Diego) and Kira Jorgensen (Vista), fourth in that national level competition at Balboa Park on December 13th, 1986, led this competition also.  Davis took down eventual international level stars Todd Williams (Michigan) and Bob Kennedy (Ohio) among others in his national contest, with Erin Keogh (Virginia) taking the Kinney Girls title run that year.  Davis was an aggressive prep runner, leading by seven seconds in the Mt. SAC Individual Sweeps at 4:40 for the mile, and never coming back to the pack, winning by nine seconds over Aaron Mascorro (Rosemead) 15:08-15:17.  On the Boys' side in the Team Sweeps, there was a good couple year rivalry between Casa Roble (Orangevale) and Arroyo (El Monte), with the Sac Joaquin Section power winning here 84 (80:13) to 93 (80:18) despite 9:19 3200 star Robbie Roberts dropping out along the way with illness for Casa.  Arroyo was young and came back the next year in 1987 to destroy everyone at the first State Meet. On the Girls' side, Palos Verdes was very dominating in one of the most impressive team performances in So Cal history up to that point, scoring 33 points in the Team Sweeps event, with five in the top ten and a 93:42 team time on the old, slightly longer Mt. SAC lay-out, only behind University of Irvine's 92:25 on the course all-time list with Uni racing that in a late November Section finals race.  Kira Jorgensen, who had a great career at Vista and Rancho Buena Vista HS (new school that opened in her area during her prep career), racing to a 50 yard lead at the mile in 5:30 and never looking back during a 17:59-18:21 win over Thousand Oak's Christy Farrell.  Brigid Freyne (Riverside Poly), who had improved greatly since the year before, was the Individual sweeps winner at 18:03 over Jamie Park (Santa Barbara). 

Eventual NCAA 3k track champ for UCLA Karen Hecox raced nicely here as a frosh for South Hills (West Covina), with Stanford stars Gary Stoltz (Miraleste) and David Scudamore (Palos Verdes) also showing up strongly in the results. 

The 1986 Mt. SAC Meet was another of the season's highlights!!!

LINK TO OUR PDF SUMMARY OF THE 1986 MT. SAC INVITATIONAL