Mt. SAC Hosts West Regional Meet Saturday

The top high school runners from more than 10 states will compete in the 22nd Foot Locker Cross-Country West Regional on Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. The top eight runners in each of the boys’ and girls’ seeded races qualify for the national championships Dec. 9 in Orlando, Fla.

The girls’ seeded race is scheduled for 10:15 a.m. and will include 131 individuals from California, Wyoming, Washington, Utah, Oregon, Idaho, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Arizona and Alaska.

County entrants are Amber Steen of Newport Harbor, Julie Allen of Fountain Valley, Lori Mann of Santa Margarita, Katie Quinlan of Corona del Mar, Christy Arnerich of Rosary and Lindsay Grose of Trabuco Hills.

The boys’ seeded race is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. and will field 233 runners, including Santa Margarita’s Steven Murray, Valencia’s Juan Robles and Estancia’s Mike Casillas.

The schedule also includes 21 grade-level races, with the earliest beginning at 8:15 a.m. and the last at 1:45 p.m.

The private event is not sanctioned by any high school organizations and runners cannot wear their high school jerseys. Runners must present a picture ID to get their racing bib.

The 2.93-mile course is the same one used for the Southern Section finals two weeks ago.

Mt. SAC used a 5,000-meter course at last year’s West Regional and the winning girls’ time was 18 minutes 7 seconds. The eighth-place finisher came in at 18:24, the 50th finished in 19:58 and 100th was 21:04.

The winning boys’ time was 15:37, eighth place came in at 16:03, 50th was 16:49 and 100th was 17:18.

Villa Park’s Augie Escobar and Katella’s Danny Mejia qualified for the national championships last season after placing among the top eight. It marked the first time since 1992 that two county runners made the nationals.