California State Meet
Notes on the Fresno Finals
by Doug Speck
From: DougSpeck@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, November 29, 1998 12:51 PM
To: dye@dyestat.com
Subject: Cal St HS CC St Meet Notes
State Meet Notes - Doug Speck
Following in race order run
Boys Division I
Obviously this closest ever State Meet division (two points separating first three LB
Poly 115-Santa Ana 116-Saugus 117) shows the importance of all five scorers in this
activity. Winner Long Beach Poly had their sixth runner with the same time as second place
Santa Ana’s fifth runner with the Poly athlete edging in ahead, etc. Poly finished a
sterling year, with victories at Mt. SAC, the tough Southern Section Division I contest
(top three here), and in this meet.
Justin Willingham (Beyer, Modesto), a 4:13 1600 meter runner who did not move on to the
State Meet last spring in that sport, won Div III last year at East Union of Manteca, amd
probably became the first ever to win state titles at two schools (remember this meet has
only been around for twelve years). Alfonso Leon of Santa Ana led through two miles, with
Willingham coming into sight about a quarter mile from the finish with a comfortable lead
and holding it. Willingham was quoted early in the year as stating he and the Beyer
coaches were working on pacing the season to peak at the end, with the program seeming to
work nicely here.
Boys Division II
Coach Mike Cochrane and Don Ocana’s Katella (Anaheim) continued their fine season
with a huge win here (1-5-9-10-15 afrer displacement for 40 points)! With five of the top
seven here back Coach Ocana indicated to Dave Osterman of the Orange County Register that
they are looking to travel next year (Eastern States championship race (NYC) or Vulcan
(Birmingham, Alabama) people listening???).
Ryan Mack, another 4:13 1600m runner, blue-printed the Division I race plan, edging
away from a good pack over the final mile to win comfortably 15:23-15:30 over Marcus
Chandler (Serra, San Diego), who was probably undefeated coming into this meet. Los Gatos
(third behind Katella and San Pasqual), under Coach Willy Harmatz, interestingly moved up
from Division III in the Central Coast Section to compete here, with their 83:00 team time
probably placing them the same spot there (behind local St. Francis (Mountain View and Don
Bosco Tech (Rosemead).
Girls Division I
Coach Randy Rossi of Irvine HS, racing three frosh in the scoring top five, made a
strong move in the last five to six weeks. A pleasing effort in the Orange County
Championships in mid-October was followed by leading efforts in the Southern Section
Prelims, an upset win over Esperanza (Anaheim) and Yucaipa and others in the area Finals
there, and a narrow win here over the determined Esperanza group. Rich Medellin at
Esperanza has to be quite frustrated, but continues to rack up the State plaques in second
and national rankings among the top fraction of one percent of teams in the nation. Clovis
West (Fresno) ran a very determined race in fourth, with the Central Section going 1- 3
(Clovis/Clovis West) two years back, then kind of settling back since that point.
Individually Lauren Fleshman and Trina Cox switched places since last year up front,
with Cox a narrow lead through two miles before the lithe-striding (trying to say light
and fluid) Fleshman edged away to a 17:38-17:48 win. Coach Doug Courtemarche’s Santa
Rosa HS program, between Julia Stamps and Trina, had won four consecutive State Div I
individual titles.
Girls Division II
Coach John Mahr of Sultana was not a happy camper this week, with Boys’ injuries
in other sporting activities and a fall in the Section meet on the Girls’s side that
threatened the team’s possible success. The outstanding Girls’ squad could not
be denied here, with an impressive 40 point total to win over defending champ Woodbridge.
The Hesperia area that Sultana is in is not very hospitable weather-wise during much of
the preparation process (read hotter than blazes!), so there certainly was some adjustment
that went on during the training regime for the winning crew during the summer and early
Fall requiring some special sacrifices.
Jamie Witt (Folsom) raced away individually here, with Lori Mann (Santa Margarita,
Rancho SM) bouncing back from a Southern Section run in the heat to a fine second here.
The top nine return here for next year! Placer (Auburn) was seventh without stars Lindsay
Hyatt and Randi Fee, with the couple minutes that duo would have knocked off the team-time
putting them in the plaque award hunt. Hyatt, recently signed at Stanford, will be fine
for the spring after undergoing treatment for a hip problem.
Boys Division III
An interesting team race broke up the string of Southern Section wins at this point.
Don Bosco Tech (Rosemead) had run strong in the Southern Section race, and moved ahead of
St. Francis (Mountain View) in the mind of some. Anyway, when it was all settled St.
Francis won one for the Central Coast Section with a fine effort and 66 point win to
Bosco’s 93. An all underclass Redwood (Larkspur) team was third.
Celedonio Rodriguez of Elsie Allen, another of those new schools in Santa Rosa, was the
surprise winner here over David Ulibarri (Sierra, Manteca), with favorite Andrew Hill (Los
Altos), undefeated with big wins at Stanford and Mt. SAC, indicating that he simply did
not feel very good on this day.
Girls Division IV
The Nordhoff (Ojai) magic for the day started here, with a strong effort needed to take
a truly special Corona del Mar (Newport Beach team. Coaches Ken Reeves (Nordhoff) and Bill
Sumner (CdM) are two of the more effective people at working with young folks, with the
one point margin here not surprising. Coach Reeves is noted for frightening peaks, with
the hitch described in our preview article dug down for here, with a 54-55 win that took
Nordhoff’s tenth (!!!!!) overall team title Boys and Girls since 1991. These are
dynamite groups (Nordhoff 97:54 and CdM 98:03) that must bring other coaches at this level
to tears when they learn that both teams return everyone next year. The write-up next time
this year should be interesting, as this competition and possible re-run will probably be
brought up by both coaches as they talk to their teams in the next twelve months.
Angela Sanchez (Capuchino, San Bruno) powered a 1-2 Central Coast sweep individually
with a fine 18:33 run over Alejandra Barrientos (San Lorenzo Valley, of Felton, who would
go round with the last name Barrient if we could not translate for these darn database
programs who arbitrarily cut off long last names). Sanchez, a soph, had emerged last
spring to race 4:56 for 1600 meters and place fourth at state.
Boys Division V
This would be a very close contest and that is how it turned out. In Section runs, down
South Maranatha (Sierra Madre) nipped Flintridge Prep (La Canada), with Notre Dame/St.
Joseph (Alameda) nipping University (San Francisco) in the north. St. Joe, seemingly
capable of great efforts when needed, surprisingly finished only seventh. Flintridge,
racing with a nice 39 second 1-5 gap behind leader Vince Yuen, took the title over
Maranatha 86-94. The two schools are about fifteen minutes from each other down the 210
Freeway at the west end of the San Gabriel Valley in the general Pasadena area.
Jeff Tomlinson continued his fine season, with the 9:22 3200m star continuing to
outshine others at this level with his 15:55 individual win.
Girls Division III
Nationally ranked La Canada continued its fine season, reaching its goal here with a
big state meet win, defending its title. Five runners through fifteenth place gave them a
46 point total. Foothill (Redding), with one of the Nothern Section’s best teams
ever, finished second. Two and three (Kim Garnic and Amy Foss) graduate for La Canada,
with Foothill having everyone return for 1999. Granada (Livermore) ran one of the
meet’s better team races in placing third.
Individually, Sara Bei continued to add to her honors with a “fastest of day”
17:22 win, having to be looking ahead to the next two weekends (Foot Locker Regional and
Nationals). With defending National Champ Erin Sullivan (Vermont) back in the pack, but
qualifying at the Northeast Regional on 11/28, Sara is suddenly one of the favorites at
the Orlando National meet. The relaxed, confident Bei seems comfortable with it all.
Boys Division IV
Nordhoff (Ojai) continued to roll through the competition here. Despite graduating
athletes who placed 2-3-4 in this race last year, Coach Ken Reeves (using his own words
here) “re- loaded” and totalled 59 points with nearly a minute and a half on the
team time watch over second place Central Valley. I hope inquiring coaching minds are
working on figuring out what they do at Nordhoff, as it is truly magic! Different teams
have good teams on the Boys’ and Girls’ side, but rarely can a single coaching
staff juggle excellence at both levels for a long, long time. By the way, this was the
eleventh team title (sixth for Boys, fifth for Girls) for the program since 1991! We would
match the overall Boys/Girls success of the Nordhoff program against any in the entire
United States.
In an interesting individual contest, Alberto Munoz, a 9:26 3200m runner, often a high
placer but not many wins in the tough Orange County area of the Southern Section, took the
gold this time, at 15:53.
Girls Division V
As we said when we gave out the awards, we save the best for last. University (San
Francisco) finished one of those magical years when they probably accomplished all that
they felt they were capable of. A 20 point win here was actually higher than last
year’s eighteen, but heck, second place individual placer Angela Petersen (Francis
Parker, San Diego) is a 5:02/10:58 star in track, is no slouch, so there was some
competition. Along the way the season included a win in the Mt. SAC Saturday Large Schools
Team Sweeps event and perfect score win the Section Meet.
Defending Champ Kira Morser from Uni won again in a fine 18:20, with a comment that our
predicted win for Petersen providing her with a little extra oomph! during the contest.
With a 19:12 average for its scoring five on a rolling 5000 meter course, we would match
Uni against any small school team in the country.
General Comments:
1) It will be interesting to see how the different divisions wash out next year when
the alignment of the State’s five levels are
re-done. The Division I statewide (read that statewide, not within one or two sections
where it made not much difference) was really over-burdened as it seems many high schools
added just enough students to put them up into this Division I level during the two year
lag when divisions were refigured. The divisions will be redone each year in the future.
It is assumed that the false protection of very small schools in Division V will continue,
with schools of 400 and under there and the rest of the schools statewide divided into
four groups.
There is debate over what schools with cross-country should actually be counted for
divisions, those who claim the sport in a statewide sport survey done each year or just
those who put a team on the line at the end of the season. The latter would seem to be
more valid.
2) The subject of “at-large” schools into the state meet will always come up,
with some teams who legitimately can battle for state
champioship plaques (they give three per division) not at the competition after missing by
one spot at their Section meet. With team-times easily convertible it is not difficult to
make some sense out of placements. There is room at the starting line in Fresno, with meet
management in the past indicating no problem with adding a couple of teams to each
contest.
