Pedersen’s Win Erases Doubts

OJAI —  If Jaclyn Pedersen of Royal High advances to the state Division I cross-country final next month, she will no doubt look back on her victory in the Ventura County championships at Lake Casitas on Friday as the race that provided the jump-start.

Pedersen, a sophomore, struggled to a 20th-place finish in the individual sweepstakes race of the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational last Saturday, but she led from start to finish in the county meet.

Her time of 18:17 over the three-mile distance moved her into a tie for fourth on the all-time course list and made her the first Royal runner to win the girls’ title since Leslie De La Torre in 1977.

It also helped Royal finish third in the team standings behind Thousand Oaks and Nordhoff.

“There were a lot of doubts after last week,” said Pedersen, runner-up to Elaine Canchola of Nordhoff in the county meet last year. “I was trying to get in bed early every night this week and get a lot of sleep, but then I just told myself that I had to forget about what happened and go out and run my race.”

For Pedersen, that meant taking the lead in the first 50 yards and pushing the pace the rest of the way.

Sophomore Kelley Hess of Thousand Oaks was within a stride of Pedersen when she came through the mile in 5:48, but Pedersen had a four-second lead over Hess a half-mile later and a 10-second advantage when she passed the two-mile mark in 12:00.

Sophomore Laura Jakosky of Agoura was in third at that point, 60 yards behind Pedersen, but she passed Hess and cut Pedersen’s lead to about 15 yards with 600 yards left.

She couldn’t draw any nearer, however, and finished in 18:21 to move to sixth on the course list.

“I knew she was getting closer,” Pedersen said. “I’ve been running long enough to know when someone is getting close to you by the way people cheer for them and people were getting excited for her. . . . I got a big rush when we came around that final curve, though, because I saw [the clock at the finish line] and it was just a little over 18 minutes. I had no idea I was running that fast until then.”

Hess finished third in 18:39 to lead Thousand Oaks to its second consecutive county title and fourth since the meet began in 1976.

The Lancers, with senior Melissa McBain fifth in 19:00 and senior Amanda Armstrong seventh in 19:09, totaled 67 points to defeat runner-up Nordhoff, which had 100.

Royal and cross-town rival Simi Valley each had 103 points, but Royal finished third because the Highlanders’ No. 6 runner finished 58th while Simi Valley’s placed 84th.

Nordhoff put its No. 1 and No. 5 runners within 19 seconds of each other in the boys’ meet to total a winning 62 points.

Ventura, led by individual champion Josh Spiker, placed second with 105 points, followed by Thousand Oaks with 108 and Camarillo with 129.

Junior Kent Krumpschmidt placed seventh in 16:13 for Nordhoff, the top-ranked Division IV team in the state, and junior Aidan Short finished 10th in 16:18.

The Rangers’ other scoring runners were sophomore Roberto Contreras in 12th at 16:21, senior Mike Lemon in 15th at 16:29 and senior Adam Dutter 18th in 16:32.

The victory gave Nordhoff its second county title in a row and third in four years.

“We were trying to maintain contact with each other,” Coach Ken Reeves of Nordhoff said of his top five runners. “We went out too fast at Mt. SAC and broke apart our pack.”

Spiker, a junior who became the first Ventura boy to win a county title, was expected to be challenged by junior Seth Neumuller of Thousand Oaks, but Neumuller didn’t run after twisting his ankle in practice Thursday.

Spiker led through the mile in 4:56 and won by 24 seconds as his 15:22 clocking moved him to sixth on the course list.

Sophomore Mark Nevers of Oak Park finished second in 15:46 with senior Patrick Dolan of Newbury Park third in 15:59.