Mt. SAC Invitational
Oct. 20-21, 2006 Mt San Antonio College, Walnut CA
a DyeStat Featured Meet with on-site coverage
by Doug Speck, Rich Gonzalez, Kirsten O'Hara, and John & Donna Dye .
 

Division 1-2 Girls Team Sweepstakes
Race 56 - 10:20 am Saturday - RESULTS - VIDEO - PHOTO ALBUM

Saugus 100 (Torrey Pines 103, Buchanan 103, O'Connor AZ 119);
Marie Lawrence, Reno NV 16:50 (Lauren Saylor CA 17:10)

Saugus girls pull a (close) number on the competition

story by Rich Gonzalez


Start
-- Marie Lawrence (left) had it all her way with a front running win in 16:50, fastest girls time of the meet, but the team battle was torrid. Favored Saugus 100, led by Shannon Murakami (center) was all out to beat Torrey Pines 103, led by Ana Prim (right). Torrey Pines edged Buchanan 103 on the sixth runner tie breaker. photo by John Dye

Saugus girls pull a (close) number on the competition
Centurions win Saturday girls sweeps, posting faster performance than U.S. #2 CdM
- 13,901 finishers across 96 HS races comprise nation's largest meet in 2006.


by Rich Gonzalez
DyeStat and DyeStatCal

WALNUT -- Saturday's Girls Large Schools Team Sweepstakes figured to serve as a wake-up call to any less-than-sharp team heading into postseason. Unlike last year, though, this was one wake-up call that Keri Molt would not miss.
Molt's alertness, both in getting out of bed (she sat out last year's race due to not waking up in time for the school bus) and in advancing to good position along three challening hills, reaped major dividends as the Centurions emerged victorious in a thrilling four-team battle in the featured girls race of the day at the 59th Annual Mt. SAC Invitational.
Attention Corona del Mar girls team: This is your wake-up call.
Saugus, ranked second in this week's NTN California Region girls' Top 10, scored 100 points to edge out third-ranked Torrey Pines and eighth-ranked Buchanan, which tied at 103. Torrey Pines officially was declared the runner-up team based on a faster 6th-runner tiebreaker. Sandra Day O'Connor School of Arizona rose to the challenge on the big stage to place fourth with 119.
Saugus' showing was not only fastest of the day (93:39) but also fastest of the meet, exactly one minute quicker than CdM's showing in winning the Division III Sweepstakes race on Friday. The Centurions also had faster times than Corona del Mar at the #'s 2, 3, and 4 scoring positions. The Sea Kings had entered the weekend ranked as the #2 in the nation, according to The Harrier's Cross-Country Report, but current U.S. #1 Hilton of New York lost last weekend, with no new national poll released since.
So could Saugus actually be the nation's top team? That's plenty of heavy speculation and a lot of "what if's", but so lnog as the Centurions continue responding as they did over the weekend, they at least earn serious consideration in the discussion.
In a deep race where every possible point figured to be precious, Centurions leader Shannon Murakami led the attack once more, but could not match the blistering pace set by All-Americans Marie Lawrence of Nevada and Lauren Saylor of Central California's Buchanan High. Lawrence, in perhaps her most impressive run to date, clocked 16:50. Saylor, who returned to the national elite with this weekend's run, cajoled enough strenfth to place second in 17:10, with Murakami a distant third in 17:34.
But the key difference was what played out behind the frontrunners, with Saugus placing 15th and 16th at the 2-3 positions, setting up Molt's heroics.
Usually the team's # 5 scorer with a gap to its first four, Molt was the team savior by placing 19th in the race, a big 28 spots of the team's usual # 4 finisher, Brianna Jauregui.
Saugus coach Rene Paragas termed Molt's breakthrough as key in a 13-team field that included a dozen squads either currently or previously ranked in their respective states.
"If (the unofficial quick-score results) hold up, she saved us," said Paragas in the minutes after the race.
Not a bad showing from a girl who missed this race last year in what would have been her lifetime debut on the course.
"To be honest, I didn't wake up in time (for this meet last year)," an embarrassed Molt sheepishly grinned. "(The bus) left at 4:30 in the morning and my dad was like "I'm so sorry.' ...He woke me up at 7."
She blew past several runners (including Jauregui) in the final 1.9 miles to finish in 18:54. By contrast, she ran a previous lifetime-best 19:40 here at last year's prelims.
"I really like hills, so this is kind of one of my courses," Molt shared. "I was nervous beforehand, so Shannon and Katie were like, 'Relax, it's going to be okay.' That made me feel good and I just wanted to go out there and do my best."
Individually, Lawrence achieved the top time of the meet, traversing Mt. SAC's storied hills in 16:50 for the 2.91-mile layout during the same Girls Team Sweepstakes race. Lawrence's effort came as temperatures crept into the mid-70s my mid-morning. High temperatures topped out at 87 degrees during the early afternoon as 13,901 runners successfully completed the course in the two-day extravaganza.
The FootLocker nationals runner-up in each of the last three years, Lawrence had stated during her junior year that she'd rather win nationals as a senior rather than a junior, no doubt seeing past underclass national champions not fare as well as seniors. She discounted Saturday's performance as more of a steppingstone to the big races ahead, but still handled the heat and the competition well. She left Walnut for the Pacific Northwest shortly after the meet, reportedly to make a college visitation to the University of Washington, where older sister Collier now runs.

Top three girls times were run by Marie Lawrence and Lauren Saylor in this race and Jordan Hasay in the Individual Sweepstakes
- collage by Bill Leung

 

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