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Boys - Girls
by John Dye
WALNUT CA 11/30/01 -- On the eve of the Foot Locker West region
championships at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC), we try to make
sense of the outlook of the seeded races. The top 8 boys and top
8 girls will win a paid trip to Orlando FL for the national finals
next week, December 8, at Disney World.
We start with the returning runners from
last year's regional, then we look at DyeStat's Foot
Locker Favorites list, which takes into account the ups and
downs of the season, and finally we start guessing.
Girls
Amber Trotter against the world
Since she blitzed the Great Race of the Great Bay field in Golden
Gate Park, San Francisco, September 8 in her triumphant return from
an eating disorder, Ukiah CA sr Amber Trotter has been in a class
by herself. Her usual margin of victory has been a minute or more,
topped by her astounding 16:16 conquest of the Mt. SAC Invitational
October 20 -- 1:47 ahead of second place and 22 seconds better than
Anita Siraki's course record that lasted only 1 year.
Trotter is one of eight top runners returning from the 2000 West
Regional, including four who went to the national finals:
Time Pos Runner
18:07 4 Zeigle, Laura 2002, Bingham UT
18:08 5 Trotter, Amber 2002, Ukiah CA
18:12 6 Pasciuto, Liza 2004, Murrieta Valley CA
18:12 7 Horowitz, Clara 2002, Oakland CA
18:33 11 Meyerhoff, Sally 2002, Mtn Pointe AZ
18:39 12 Chock, Caitlyn 2004, Granite Bay CA
18:39 13 Vince, Emily 2002, Peninsula CA
18:45 17 Graham, Ruth 2003, Gunn CA
Zeigle, Pasciuto, and Trotter were 3-6-7 at Orlando, and Horowitz
was 21st. You could do worse than pick the 8 runners above to be
the 2001 West region team. Zeigle is a multiple national finalist
and last year went to the World Cross championships in Belgium as
the US national junior champion. Pasciuto followed up her freshman
sensation with a solid sophomore year, marred by a collapse in the
Southern Section finals that kept her out of the California state
meet. Vince, Horowitz, and Graham ended their regular season with
a flourish with the 2-3-4 best times at the California state meet
(45 seconds or more behind Trotter, of course). Meyerhoff was second
to Trotter at San Francisco and then went undefeated the rest of
the season. Chock is another fine sophomore from California.
Settling for those eight, however, would overlook new faces such
as Zoe Nelson, the Flathead Kalispell MT wunderkind who went undefeated
in her freshman year, topped by a thrilling win over defending state
champion Heidi Lane in the last strides. Also not to be overlooked
are such veterans as 4-time New Mexico champion Felicia Guliford,
a Foot Locker finals top 10 runner as a freshman and sophomore,
who led the 1999 race before falling in the last 200 meters; Olympia
WA sr Jessie McLaughlin, who took over the Washington leadership
when Alison Tubbs went down with an injury; Maria Carrillo CA sr
Jenny Aldridge, with plenty of top flight national experience; Orem
UT jr Amber Harper, who duels the Zeigle twins regularly and wins
her share; and San Dieguito CA sr Jenna Timinsky, winner of one
of the San Francisco races and California Division 3 champion.
Boys
Things are not so clear cut on the boys side, where there could
be a garrison finish by several top runners.
Here are the top returnees from last year's West regional:
Time Pos Runner
15:39 8 Gotcher, Brett 2002, Aptos CA
15:44 10 Gomez, Jacob 2002, Klamath Union OR
15:52 12 Hagenbuch, Henry 2002, Cate CA
15:58 14 Leal, Yung-Sung 2003, Arroyo CA
16:00 17 Dambkowski, Carl 2002, Granada CA
16:01 19 Michels, Kurt 2002, Flathead MT
16:03 21 Jespersen, Lauren 2003, Klamath Union OR
Of this group, the brightest star is Yong-Sung Leal, who rose to
California elite status as a sophomore last June when he won the
California State Meet 3200 in 9:00.49. Leal followed that up with
a national record 5000 meters for the young men's age group in the
USATF Junior Olympics in July. His time of 14:27.14 took 12 seconds
off a record that had stood since 1984. After the strenuous summer,
Leal started slowly this fall on purpose, but he is undefeated and
was fastest of the day at Stanford, Mt. SAC, and the California
State Meet.
The West regional will finally bring Leal face to face with Taft
sr Billy Nelson, who is also undefeated. They ran different sections
at Stanford, Mt. SAC, and the California State Meet, and Nelson's
times were just a few seconds off Leal's.
Other strong Californians are Gotcher, Hagenbuch, Dambkowski, US#2
Canyon sr Luke Llamas, and Liberty Christian jr Tim Nelson.
But there is more to the West than California, as Flathead Kalispell
MT proved last year when they roared down from the Rockies and placed
3 in the top 20. Kurt Michels is the only holdover of that stellar
trio, and he was undefeated after a 2nd at the Sunfair Invitational
in September.
Winner of the Sunfair was Auburn WA sr Chris Lukezic, who established
Northwest supremacy in winning the Washington-Oregon BorderClash
at Nike World Headquarters 3 weeks ago. Lukezic caught the attention
of national observors last May with an 8:57:01 3200 and 4:08.82
mile.
Other top contenders are Oregon teammates Lauren Jesperson and
Jacob Gomez, 1-2 for Klamath Union and 1-2 in the Oregon state meet;
and Alta UT sr Kyle Perry, who turned heads with a 2nd place finish
in the Great American Cross Country Festival in September.
Foot Locker West
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