How good is Ramona's Matt McInvale running right now? So good that Ramona High coach Dave Wilson is almost apologetic about it. After McInvale raced to a course record at the Temecula Valley Invitational last week, Wilson felt sorry for his opposition.

McInvale clocked a 15:38 on the "very, very hilly," 5K course, breaking the old course record of 16:03.  Among those he left in his wake were the runners from Santa Ana High, the state's top-ranked large school boys team.  Santa Ana's Alfonso Leon was second in 15:52, also breaking the old course record, but he was well behind McInvale.

"Santa Ana had a lot of parents there for support," Wilson reported, "and they were just stunned (by the margin of McInvale's win).  We're not trying
to make anybody look bad." Following Wilson's orders, McInvale kept himself in check at the Dana Hills meet one week before, where he also won by a large margin.

"I let him race this week," Wilson said.  "I wanted to find out where the heck we are." In a year that the local section has a number of state title contenders, McInvale is running the hottest.  Accordingly, Wilson wants to make sure that he eases off the throttle in upcoming meets. A sidebar:  because of various schedule quirks, McInvale has not yet raced two of this area's hottest runners:  Serra's Marcus Chandler and Granite Hills' Jason Finch.  All three were at the Mt. Carmel Invite, but were in different races. McInvale may not race against Chandler until the CIF Division II finals, and a possible showdown with Finch may have to wait until the Footlocker Regionals, scheduled this year at Mt. SAC, one week after the state meet.

The Results:
At Temecula, Saturday, October 3.  Course is "very, very hilly."
 

BOYS (3.1 miles): San Diego area runners: 15:38   Matt McInvale, Ramona 15:52   Alfonso Leon, Santa Ana 16:24   Juan Salgado, Santa Ana 17:56   Ricky Roane, Ramona 18:50   David Del Llano, R 19:04   Jon Shellhammer, R 19:21   Matt Saldivar, R

GIRLS (3.1 miles): San Diego area runners: 21:22   Loretta Kilmer, Ramona 22:29   Brianna Goetz, R 23:59   Kristin Spivey, R 24:48   Camille Lucio, R 25:16   Claire Possenniez, R