SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Cross Country

2005 Grossmont North League Report:

West Hills serves notice, runs past El Capitan

By Phillip Brents

Posted Oct. 17, 2005

If there ever was a case of deja vu, last Friday's Grossmont North League dual meet between West Hills and El Capitan at Lindo Lake Park epitomized it. Both teams raced to the nearly the same scores as the preceding year. Both teams will look toward a final showdown at league finals once again.

Weekly improvement, according to West Hills coach Bill Cleaves, was a key in the Wolf Pack's dramatic 27-29 dual meet victory against the Vaqueros. West Hills hiked its Grossmont North League dual record to 3-0 after previously defeating El Cajon Valley and Grossmont. El Capitan fell to 1-1 after opening the season with a victory against Grossmont.

As dramatic as the girls matchup was, the boys matchup was even closer. West Hills and El Capitan finished in a 28-28 tie after scoring through five runners. West Hills won the tie-breaker on the basis of the higher finish by its sixth runner.

Last year, the teams tied with the same score, though El Capitan won the tie-breaker.

"The meet was absolutely incredible," said Vaquero head coach Anthony Garcia, whose team now has sufficient motivation to better its showing at the upcoming conference finals.

It was at last year’s league finals that El Capitan cemented its championship.

But the memories will linger from the team’s thrill-packed Oct. 14 encounter. At the mile-mark, a scant three seconds separated seven girls: four for El Capitan and three for West Hills.

Peters and Hall of West Hills opened a 20-yard gap on El Capitan’s Christy James with about a half-mile left in the race but James closed the gap over the next 400 meters and then turned it into a sprint to the finish. She passed both Wolf Pack runners right before crossing the finish line to score the win in a time of 12:33 on the 2.1-mile course.

"Sub-13 on this course is outstanding and we had five girls at or under that," Garcia said.

After James, Peters and Hall followed closely both with 12:34 times. El Capitan’s Stephanie Cook finished fourth in 12:48 with the best race of her career, according to Garcia. West Hills’ Johanna Fisherova was fifth in 13:00 while El Capitan’s Mallory Bawkey (13:06) and Katie Martin (13:08) were sixth and seventh, respectively.

That gave El Capitan four runners among the top seven finishers. But a trio of West Hills runners — Sam Timanus (13:34), Mellisa Peabody (13:35), and Mari Ehlert (13:37) — followed across the finish line to win the meet for the Wolf Pack, which finished with six of the top 10 runners.

El Capitan followed with two more runners in 11th and 12th place: Ashley Tillery (13:43) and Jamie Ferguson (13:49). Samantha Espindola and Carrie Saccone rounded out West Hills’ running attack with times of 13:56 and 14:30. Ashley Kearney was the final Vaquero in 14:45.

The dual meet win against the Vaqueros capped a whirlwind week for West Hills after the Wolf Pack entered the week ranked fifth in the San Diego Section in a poll released by the section’s coaches. The elite ranking placed West Hills second among Division II teams. The top three teams at next month’s section finals qualify for the state championship meet.

El Capitan was ranked sixth overall, third among Division II squads.

Could the Grossmont North League teams’ power struggle continue all the way to the state finals? It is an interesting thought — and a tribute to the strength of both East County teams.

"Both teams have a very good shot of making the state meet and either team on a good day could upset University City for the Division II team title," El Capitan’s Garcia said.

Peters and Fisherova are the Wolf Pack’s top returners after both earned First Team All-CIF top 10 finishes at last year’s Division II finals. Peters was second while Fisherova was ninth.

West Hills finished fourth at last year’s Division II championships -- missing the state cut by 10 points. Cleaves is not predicting anything yet but the Wolf Pack could have the potential to return to Fresno as a team since last accomplishing that feat in 2003. "El Capitan is tough. First we have to get through league. Once we get there, we’ll start thinking about CIF," Cleaves said.

The Oct. 14 dual between the two Grossmont North League running superpowers proved even more interesting on the boys side. The matchup expected to be close, though the defending champion Vaqueros appeared to have the early season edge based on the teams’ head-to-head meeting at the South Bay Invitational. El Capitan placed its five scorers 62 deep in the field of 137 runners while West Hills’ fifth man finished 72nd.

That changed three weeks later, with West Hills’ Dan Gonia – a state meet qualifier as a junior last year -- leading the pack with his time of 16:48 on the 3.1-mile course. El Capitan’s Kyle Phipps finished second in 17:02. The pair left the field behind after the first mile.

West Hills’ Trent Butler, completing one of his best races of the year, finished third in 17:21 to give the Wolf Pack two of the race’s top three individuals. But El Capitan then flooded the finish line with a trio of runners — Kevin Watters (17:33), Miles Segni (17:35) and Rhett Stous (17:37) — to place four runners among the top six individuals.

Then it was West Hills’ turn to counter the Vaqueros’ scoring surge by placing the next four runners — keyed by Blake Caricato (17:52) and Octavio Davila (18:00) — to give the Wolf Pack six of the race’s top 10 individuals.

The trio of Chris Torres (18:10), Patrick Green (18:29) and Jarred Atkinson (18:42) closed out the Vaqueros' field.

Garcia noted that at the halfway mark West Hills led by three points but that El Capitan — despite missing its No. 2 runner (who was held out of the race by a coach’s decision) — came back to force the tie. The Wolf Pack’s sixth runner (Jeremy Root, 18:03) finished 10^th overall in the race; El Capitan’s sixth runner (Patrick Green, 1:29) was 12^th.

Garcia said that with three top quality teams in Division II — San Pasqual, University City and Monte Vista — a top five team finish at CIF would be a tribute to the seasons of both Grossmont North League teams.

"Both should be excited about a top five prospect," the El Capitan coach said.

Section rankings

San Pasqual topped the section’s boys teams in the coaches poll, followed by University City, El Camino, Bonita Vista, Rancho Bernardo, Torrey Pines, Fallbrook, Vista and Monte Vista.

San Pasqual is the top-ranked Division II boys team, followed by University City, Monte Vista and Otay Ranch. El Camino, Bonita Vista (the top team at the Oct. 15 Southern California Invitational), Rancho Bernardo, Torrey Pines and Fallbrook rounded out the top five Division I boys teams while St. Augustine topped the Division III rankings.

The four teams ranked ahead of West Hills and El Capitan in the girls poll included La Costa Canyon, Torrey Pines, University City and Valley Center. El Camino, Vista and Westview followed the two East County teams to round out the top 10 teams.

University City topped the Division II girls rankings while Westview (fourth) and Patrick Henry (fifth) followed West Hills and El Capitan in the division rankings.

La Costa Canyon, Torrey Pines, El Camino and Vista comprised the top four Division I girls teams in the coaches poll. Valley Center was the top Division III team.

Monte Vista topped Steele Canyon 21-35 on Oct. 14 in boys Grossmont South League dual meet action, with Muluken Beressa earning top finishing honors with a time of 17:32 on the 3.15-mile course at Steele Canyon High School.

The Cougars made a statement in the girls meet with a 17-43 victory against the Monarchs as Steele Canyon’s Ali Mendoza led all runners on the 2.15-mile course across the finish line in 14:52.

Valhalla's Tony Bareno had the top time of 16:15 in the undefeated Norsemen's 20-39 dual victory against Helix on Oct. 14. Valhalla's Michelle Dalton also earned medalist honors but the Norsemen fell 25-32 to the Highlanders in the girls race.