FALL ’88 ALL-COUNTY TEAMS : CROSS-COUNTRY : Rodriguez Uses Controversy as Fuel Against Competition

In the course of a cross-country season, runners must face countless obstacles. Mud, sand, grueling hills, occasional injury . . . it isn’t always the most pleasant of journeys.

But for Jimmy Rodriguez, a senior at Santa Ana Valley High School, this past cross-country season held one obstacle he never expected: Controversy.

Rodriguez, The Times’ boys’ cross-country runner of the year, started the season with a victory at the Woodbridge Invitational Sept. 9. But instead of being greeted with cheers, Rodriguez was met at the finish line with behind-the-back jeers.

The rumor was that Rodriguez was too old--some said 19, others thought older--to compete at the high school level.

The allegations led to an investigation by Southern Section officials, who, after seeing the birth certificate documenting his age as 18, declared Rodriguez eligible for the 1988-89 school year.

How did Rodriguez react to all of this?

With the best season of his life.

Along with the Woodbridge meet, Rodriguez won the Dana Hills Invitational, the Century League championship, finished second in the prestigious Mt. SAC Invitational individual race and was third in the state championships.

Rodriguez achieved his main goal by qualifying for the Kinney National Cross-Country Championships, the national championship for high school runners, at San Diego’s Balboa Park last Saturday. Rodriguez placed eighth, his finest performance.

(In the meet’s 10-year history, only one other Orange County runner--John Butler of Edison--placed higher. Butler was second in 1980).

Rodriguez, who set four course records this season, was the fastest Orange County finisher in each race he ran this season but one.

At the Southern Section final, Eddie Lavelle of Corona del Mar outran Rodriguez by 3 seconds. Rodriquez, who admitted he had trained heavily through the week in preparation for the state and Kinney meets, came back to outrun Lavelle by 19 seconds in the state meet the next week.

Throughout the season, Rodriguez said he heard whispers that many believed him too old--despite the fact that the Southern Section had cleared his name. Rodriguez said that the controversy, if anything, helped fuel his motivation to win.

“It didn’t bother me at all because I knew the truth,” he said.

“It made me run faster just to prove that they were wrong. It helped me a lot, you know. I just said, now I’ll really kick their butts.”

BOYS FIRST TEAM

Jimmy Rodriguez Sr. Santa Ana Valley Eddie Lavelle Sr. Corona del Mar Mike Tansley Sr. Dana Hills Roger Nava Sr. Santa Ana Steve Frisone Sr. Laguna Hills Erin Vali Sr. University Bill Gould Sr. Capistrano Valley

SECOND TEAM

Steve Niednagel Sr. Dana Hills Mike Ferrell Sr. San Clemente Tony Gibney Sr. Laguna Hills Andrew Tansley Sr. Dana Hills Dan Niednagel Soph. Dana Hills Greg Shryock Sr. Corona del Mar Robbie Price Sr. Saddleback