Lane delivers dominant 15:49 effort to take down Baxter’s benchmark

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

More than an hour after her race had finished Saturday, Claudia Lane was still trying to collect her thoughts, find the right words and articulate her truest emotions for what she had accomplished at the 70th Mt. San Antonio College Invitational.

Then the Malibu CA junior smiled and offered a simple response.

“I felt like I was flying,” Lane said. “It was so fun.”

Although she wasn’t wearing a cape, the reigning Foot Locker national champion was viewed as a nothing short of a comic book superhero by her peers after delivering arguably the best high school girls cross country race of all-time to repeat as winner of the Division 1-2 girls individual sweepstakes in Walnut, Calif.

Lane broke the 2.93-mile Mt. SAC course record by clocking 15 minutes, 49 seconds, taking down the 2012 standard of 16:00 set by Simi Valley CA standout Sarah Baxter, a two-time Nike Cross Nationals champion.

Although construction at Mt. SAC rendered the usual gauntlet finish unavailable, resulting in athletes completing the final 122 meters on a gradual incline straightaway on the airstrip to the finish, there was no debate when it came to the magnitude of Lane’s performance.

“It hasn’t really resonated with me yet, to be honest. I didn’t really expect to break 16 today, so it’s going to take a little bit to sink in,” said Lane, who broke the sophomore class record at last year’s meet when she ran 16:32.6.

“It’s really gratifying to be here right now and to have the support of everyone here. It was just an amazing experience and I’m really thankful for this.”

Lane produced splits of 2:22 at the 800 and 4:59 at the mile, but when she reached the crossover point between National Guard Alley and Poop-Out Hill in 8:32, that’s when discussion of a potential record began to escalate. Baxter reached the crossover in 8:40 during her historic run.

“At the mile, I expected to be around 5:07 or 5:08 and then I broke 5:00. I wasn’t worried, but I was like, ‘Oh no, I hope I don’t burn out on the second mile,’” Lane said. “When I got to the crossover at 8:32, I knew I had a little cushion if I possibly wanted to break Sarah’s record. But coming around Reservoir (Hill), I had to keep pushing, because that hill is tough, especially that second little one.”

Lane hit the 2-mile mark in 10:36 and reached the peak of Reservoir Hill in 13:22, before using the final 800 meters on the downhill and airstrip to propel her to a time that would have finished 26th in the boys Division 1-2 individual sweepstakes and 47th in the team sweepstakes race.

Of the 4,014 boys that raced Friday and Saturday, Lane would have ranked 137th, including 48th among the 1,049 junior male athletes.

She would have made the top five for every boys team except for Great Oak CA, Loyola CA and Crescenta Valley CA, the top three finishers in the Division 1-2 team sweepstakes, all of which delivered school-record performances, including Great Oak’s all-time course record 74:31.

“After a while, you run out of superlatives,” Malibu coach Mark Larsen said. “This course is a favorite of Claudia’s, she runs it well and she understands how to run it well. So we knew if she ran a strong first mile, getting somewhere around 5:03 or 5:04 and then using the downhill to create a little cushion by the crossover, around seven, eight, nine, 10 seconds, then she just needed to run strong for the rest of it to finish below 16.

“I felt really good when I saw her come through at the 2-mile. I knew she was going to be able to do it. She looked strong. She was standing up straight. She looked relaxed. She was attacking the next hill. She was in her zone.”

So much so that Lane didn’t realize she had broken the record until after she crossed the finish line because she was so focused on the energy of the crowd and enjoying the experience.

“I thought it was going to be a little different this year, just because of the course set up, but everyone was so supportive and just cheering on the side and that really motivated me to keep going. It was great,” Lane said. “Aerobically at the top (of Reservoir Hill) I was tired. I felt good the entire race, but after that second hill on Reservoir, I was feeling it. I knew I just had to keep pushing myself. But overall, it was such a fun race. I’m still kind of shocked. It was awesome.”

Martin Luther King CA junior Lauren Peurifoy finished second in 16:42.8 – the only female athlete among the 2,774 finishers Friday and Saturday within a minute of Lane – to elevate to the No. 12 all-time performer at Mt. SAC.

“The thing I love about this sport is that nobody acts like they’re better than anyone else, although, in fact, she is better, but she does not act that way at all,” Peurifoy said. “Just to come in second place to Claudia is so amazing.”

Lane shared meaningful moments following the race with her fellow competitors, along with family and coaches. She signed autographs, posed for photos, encouraged other runners and proudly supported her Los Angeles Dodgers hat in anticipation of their first World Series appearance in her lifetime.

It was an appropriate choice considering she had just delivered, perhaps, the finest performance of her young running career.

“Having done all this training for the past few years after I started running my freshman year, I never thought I would be here at this point in my running career,” Lane said. “I’m so grateful for all of this. I’ll always be grateful for this.”