Serratos Buzzes Field in Leading Glendale to Title

VENTURA —  Julio Serratos of Glendale College was given a buzz haircut against his will last week, but there was nothing close about his victory in the Western State Conference cross-country championships at Arroyo Verde Park on Thursday.

Serratos and fellow sophomore Miguel Galindo of Ventura were expected to duke it out for the men’s individual title, but Serratos blew the race open in the second mile and was never challenged.

His time of 21:20 over the hilly four-mile course gave him a 27-second margin of victory over runner-up Mark Sanchez of Bakersfield and led Glendale to a 31-40 victory over second-place Moorpark.

Ventura, paced by Galindo’s eighth-place finish, was third with 93 points, followed by Bakersfield at 94.

Glendale’s victory clinched its eighth WSC title in the past 11 years and gave the Vaqueros a 4-0 record against defending state champion Moorpark this season.

Glendale, the 1995 state champion, beat Moorpark by two points in the first two WSC meets of the season, but Thursday’s meet was a rout by comparison.

So was Serratos’ expected duel against defending conference champion Galindo, who finished one place behind him at the Santa Barbara Invitational on Oct. 8, but had been slowed since by a lower-leg injury.

“I thought he was going to be the guy to beat because he was right on me at Santa Barbara,” said Serratos, whose hair was cut by teammates to match theirs.

Serratos and Galindo led the field through the first mile in 5:17, but shortly thereafter, Galindo began to fade on Ventura’s home course.

“I was waiting for him to [push it] for the first two miles, but all of a sudden, he started to drop off,” Serratos said. “So I said, ‘Forget it. I’m going.’ ”

Serratos had a 12-second lead over teammate Rafael Ramos when he came through two miles in 10:45 and it grew to 26 seconds when he passed three miles in 16:04.

After that, the question wasn’t whether Serratos would post his seventh victory in eight races this season, but would he and his teammates hold off Moorpark’s hard-charging contingent.

The Raiders trailed the Vaqueros by 24 points after two miles, based on their places, but their deficit shrank to 14 at three miles and to nine at the finish.

Uzziel Gray and Jesus Villavicencio finished fourth and sixth in 21:58 and 22:04 to help Moorpark take six of the top 12 places. But Glendale countered with a 1-3-5-7 finish by Serratos, Ramos, Omar Orendain and Jose Merino.

Ramos clocked 21:53 with Orendain at 21:59 and Merino at 22:06.

Juan Fernandez rounded out the Vaqueros’ scoring in 15th at 22:57.

“I knew our first four would hold,” Glendale Coach Eddie Lopez said of the final mile. “I was nervous about our fifth man, but Juan did a good job.”

Glendale also won the women’s meet, paced by the third- and fourth-place efforts of Cheryl Ramos and Kelly Doyle.

Ramos and Doyle clocked 22:15 and 22:34 over the 5,000-meter course to help the Vaqueros total 58 points.

Ventura, led by fifth-place Elsa Guerrero, was second with 63 points, followed by Bakersfield with 71.

Ventura finished third in the overall standings, however, because Bakersfield finished second in each of the first two WSC meets.