In high school running circles, the debate rages on. Who is No. 1 in cross country - the upstarts from the mountains of Utah, or the traditional powerhouses of Greater Los Angeles?
Today they'll learn the truth, if only unofficially. Six complete teams from Utah will compete in the annual Kinney regional cross country championships this morning in Fresno, Calif., and two of them will be vying for a possible national championship. No. 2-ranked Mountain View, the two-time defending national champion from Orem, will be trying to regain its top spot from Agoura High (Calif.) in the girls' competition; No. 2-ranked Viewmont will be trying to overtake No. 1 Hart High (Calif.) in the boys' race. Meanwhile, seventh-ranked Bingham High, which ranked second nationally in the boys' competition until losing to Viewmont at the state championships, might be as good as any team in the race.Today's field also will include the Mountain View boys team, which has dropped out of the polls after ranking as high as 11th, and the Judge Memorial boys and girls teams.
Some 1,800 runners will compete in today's races. There will be boys and girls races for each class - freshman, sophomore, junior, senior - but the main events will be the two seeded races, which are reserved for the best runners based on qualifying times. Utah's best hopes in the seeded races: Bingham's Robby Duncan, Judge's Ted Hansen, Viewmont's Scott Keate, American Fork's Chris Merkley, Mountain View's Amy Allen and Juliet Stone, and Bingham's Lynette Petersen.
The top 24 runners earn medals. The first eight finishers are named to the All-Western U.S. first team and advance to the national championships a week later in San Diego.
"This is a great event," saysMountain View coach Dave Houle. "All the college coaches will be there. It's a chance for these kids to get scholarships."
Today's race is one of four regional competitions being held around the country, but there is a little doubt about which has the strongest field. According to the national polls, seven of the top 10 boys teams and seven of the top 10 girls teams are from the West region, which includes 13 states.
Officially at least, the meet is not a team competition, but you can bet that many of the coaches (and the pollsters) will tally team scores anyway. There is a lot on the line for some of them, and perhaps something to prove. Mountain View has been ranked No. 1 the last two years, even after a poor performance in last year's Kinney meet, a fact that irked a number of California schools. Mark Bloom, who serves as a one-man pollster for the cross country rankings in Harrier Magazine - which he edits - wrote an editorial defending his decision to rank Mountain View No. 1. The essence of his defense was this: Utah schools face a considerable disadvantage at the Kinney meet.
The Kinney meet comes six weeks after the Utah state championships - and one week after the California state championships. "It's hard for our kids to maintain a peak for six more weeks," says Arbogast. Especially with the additional obstacles of winter and basketball. Viewmont has been hit hard by flu, and three of its top runners tried out for the school basketball team, which cost them training time. Then there is the long drive to Fresno, which can take the snap out of any runner's legs.
"You hate to penalize a team that finished its state meet a month ago," says Bloom. "It takes a lot of extra work to prepare for the Kinney meet."
Mountain View was again ranked No. 1 most of this season, but was finally overtaken by Agoura, based on its superior times. Both teams are unbeaten.
"We had four girls finish in the top 35 last year (at Kinney) and all of them were ahead of Mountain View's No. 1 runner," says Agoura coach Bill Duley. "But I can understand their problems, running that long after their state meet. There's been no other time to run head to head."
Houle disagrees. Earlier this year, his team traveled to Alabama, supposedly to compete against the best teams in the nation. Mountain View won the meet handily, but only one other Top 10 team showed up. "(Agoura) knew if they lost to us there that there would be no way to catch us," says Houle. "They decided their best bet was to race us at Kinney, after our season is finished. If I was in their situation, I'd do the same thing."
Ironically, Mountain View finds itself in the same position Agoura did last year, trying to overtake the frontrunner at Kinney. "If Mountain View clearly outruns Agoura, then they would have a chance to overtake them in the final poll," says Bloom.
"We've been training hard," says Houle. "But it's hard. We peak for the state meet. I can see our times have fallen off in workouts, but there's nothing you can do. We just hope to get close enough to Agoura to make them sweat, and maybe the polls will see that. We sure would like to have raced them in Alabama."
Agoura easily won its second consecutive California state championship last Saturday. The school has three runners - Kay Nekota, Laura Hayward and Amy Skieresz - who could very well advance to the national finals.
"We've talked about the fact that Mountain View is going to be at the Kinney meet," says Duley. "We'd like to meet them."
About 30 miles away from Agoura, and just outside L.A., you'll find the No. 1 boys team, Hart High School, which has become a running powerhouse since Gene Blankenship began coaching there 10 years ago. The year before he arrived, six runners tried out for the team. Now they have 97 runners, five coaches and consecutive state championships.
"We'd like to run against (Viewmont)," he says. "We'd like to meet them next year somewhere."
But for now they'll settle for an overdue meeting today in Fresno.
(Additional information)
National Rankings
Boys
1. Hart (Calif.)
2. Viewmont (Utah)
3. Madera (Calif.)
4. St. Anthony's (N.Y.)
5. Meade (Wash.)
6. San Pasqual (Calif.)
7. Bingham (Utah)
8. Christian Bros. (N.J.)
9. York (Ill.)
10. Page (Ariz.)
Girls
1. Agoura (Calif.)
2. Mountain View (Utah)
3. Bend (Oregon)
4. Saratoga (N.Y.)
5. Ferris (Wash.)
6. San Pasqual (Calif.)
7. Manchester Central (N.H.)
8. Pennisula (Calif.)
9. Palatine (Ill.)
10. Edison (Calif.)