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 in 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 division
swill 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.