Baron' Down On Their Competition
Fountain Valley girls dominate Great Oak while boys upset Esperanza

Photo by Rich Gonzalez
Fountain Valley's varsity crew dazzled on Opening Day to win the Buena Park 5-way meet

Meet photo mini-album by Richard Gonzalez

Full Results -- (Thanks to Emesh Fernando and Frank Wells)

"To me, there's a bit of an Orange County (coaches) bias. They've got great programs out there. Sometimes they forget to look to the Inland Empire and say, 'You know, there's some good programs out there (too).' ... Anybody that thinks we're over-ranked is more than welcomed to race us." -- Great Oak HS Coach Doug Soles, October 14, 2006

By Richard Gonzalez
Editor, DyeStatCal.com
     (BUENA PARK) -- Be careful what you ask for. Sometimes you just might get it.
When Fountain Valley High School coach Barry Migliorini read Doug Soles' quote from that mid-October afternoon after Great Oak's win at the Inland Empire Championships, it was only a matter of minutes before he was on the phone trying to set up a meeting between the two schools.
     Although a first attempt at finding a common date failed, Buena Park coach Emesh Fernando eventually set up a season-opening non-league dual meet between his own squad and Fountain Valley. ... With Esperanza eventually joining in. ... And then Upland. ... And Great Oak.
     So you could say both Migliorini and Soles were getting their wishes after all. Well, after the way it turned out, maybe just Migliorini did.
     With a dominant yet controlled showing, Fountain Valley was near even with the Wolfpack in the first mile, but then methodically peeled away for an eventual 21-39 blowout win at Buena Park High on Thursday afternoon. The Barons, despite competing without defending state Division I champion Lizzie Coe (stress fracture), also picked up wins over Upland (15-49) and Buena Park (15-50). Esperanza, which was slated to compete in the girls race, pulled out in recent days.
     Orange County currently has 5 of the top 8 ranked girls teams in Division I, 7 of the top 9 in Division II, and 3 of the top 5 in Division III.
     "They're real tough," Soles quipped about the Barons while walking by minutes after their race.
      FV then made it a sweep of the varsity races as Coach Marty Baratti's boys crew rallied in the meet finale to pull out a thrilling 26-29 victory over Sunset League foe Esperanza and a 25-30 decision over Great Oak. Upland, which rested out four top kids, also lost to the Barons, 22-34.
      "Does this mean we'll be ranked," a jovial Baratti kiddingly beamed after hearing the official results. Not so fast, but maybe soon enough.

Upland's girls were ready for action.

      Although Upland's partial squad was ranked 5th in CIF-SS Division I coming in (and would have clearly won handily with its full lineup), Esperanza was actually regarded as the top unranked team in the division (seeded 11th) coming into the season opener, with Fountain Valley seeded 15th.
      The two biggest reasons for Fountain Valley's sudden early rise on the boys side might be senior Eric Dyson and sophomore Kaz Nishikawa.
      Dyson hammered the roads this summer to log over 1,100 miles of aerobic base, with the tail end of all that work reportedly being done at very solid pace. Here, he began gapping the rest of the 36-runner field by late in the first mile, then -- when he admittedly said he was in discomfort -- Dyson revved into a stronger tempo to really open the gap before the two-mile mark. Dyson's eventual 15:08 winning time on the fast and flat 3-mile course was 22 seconds better than nearest pursuers, Steven Schneider and David Cummungs (both timed in 15:30) from Esperanza.
      Nishikawa was the team's top frosh/soph performer at last year's league finals, where his race time was more than a minute slower than Cummings and Schneider from a different race that day last year. But here, no doubt after a fine summer of training, Nishikawa was less than 30 seconds behind the Aztecs duo. Had Nishikawa been a minute behind them yet again on Thursday, he would have also been beaten by two other Esperanza runners and Fountain Valley would have lost.
      Esperanza coach David Green was still pleased with his own team's showing, pointing out a career-best performance by fifth scorer Nick Yuhas. Additionally, the Aztecs should close the gap a bit on Fountain Valley when Jae Cho -- the team's projected #4 returnee -- returns from injury. Based on a few statistical computations, we'd still have the Barons winning here with Cho in the lineup, but only by a single point rather than three. The teams will lock up again in nine days in the Rated Race at the Woodbridge Invitational.
      After seeing his top kids train especially well in recent days, Upland coach Mike Wilson opted to have most of those runners sit this meet out rather than risk being drawn into too hard an effort before bigger meets in upcoming weeks. Had the Highlanders' missing runners placed in their usual positions in relation to those that did run for the team (which was led by Tyler Brady, sixth overall in 15:48), Upland would have secured 6 of the top 11 positions, affirming their lofty preseason ranking.

Great Oak's girls were off and running in their season opener.

      Great Oak, which was dealt bad news when its top returnee from track moved out of state and Soles indicated a few others did not put in the prescribed summer training, performed well against the top teams, edging out Esperanza by a point in dual meet scoring and moving a few slots up in the Division I seeding chart as well. The Wolfpack was paced by Kyle Dickerson's fifth-place finish and Michael Wysocki's eighth-place showing. Buena Park was headed up by Mohammad Charara, who was clocked in 17:24.

      The girls' battle ended up nowhere near as dramatic as the boys affair, thanks largely to Fountain Valley's sheer depth, even though it might not spill beyond the varsity roster as well as in years past.
      Fountain Valley's varsity "didn't really run great," according Migliorini, but he conceded that the girls still performed well enough to take care of business and win handily. Rarely do the Barons run truly exceptional in September anyway, with the training/meet schedule often no more than a series of "training through" efforts that effectively conditions the crew for the bigger meets later on the calendar.

Fountain Valley girls coach Barry Migliorini (center) gives the team a pre-race pep talk.

      Super junior talent Lauren Erickson won the varsity race in 18:07 for the Barons, eventually creating space between herself and frosh teammate Carmelle Garcia (18:16), as well as Great Oak's lead tandem of Abbey Gallaher and Heather Wilson (18:23 and 18:26, respectively). Both teams actually looked strong along the first mile, but as the pace quickened the yellow-and-blue wave took over.
      Soles mentioned that Great Oak's training scheme was altered this summer in hopes of trying to avoid the stretch-drive implosion that occured last year. Rather than sticknig most of the higher-mileage weeks in the early and mid-summer, those stages were pushed back into late summer.
      But Soles also mentioned that the torrid desert heat in Temecula has limited his girls to between 15-20 miles per week in each of the last two weeks. By contrast, Fountain Valley -- another high-mileage program -- had its top fourteen girls rattle off 20 miles each on Labor Day alone!

Buena Park's girls appear a bit giddy before their race.

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