Hall, Siraki Point Toward Nationals

Ryan Hall of Big Bear High and Anita Siraki of Glendale Hoover lost their auras of invincibility in last week’s West regional cross-country championships at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, but they’re still expected to contend for titles Saturday in the national championships in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Hall, a senior, broke a Mt. SAC course record that had stood for 22 years when he ran 14 minutes 28 seconds to win the Southern Section Division IV title Nov. 18, and he was a runaway winner in the state championships at Woodward Park in Fresno a week later. But he faded from first to fourth in the final quarter-mile of the West regional.

“I ran hard, as hard as I could today and that’s all that I had,” Hall said. “I wanted to win. That was my goal. But I didn’t exactly train right this week to really hit it up big here. I was really pointing more toward nationals.”

In addition, Hall was running his fourth hard race in four weeks while it had been several weeks since the top three finishers--Seth Watkins and David Vidal of Kalispell, Mont., and Seth Pilkington of Orem, Utah--had raced.

Senior Dathan Ritzenhein of Rockford, Mich., who ran 8:41.10 for 3,200 meters during track season, is favored to win his second consecutive boys’ title Saturday. But Hall and senior Alan Webb of Reston, Va., the No. 2- and 3-ranked milers in the nation in track, are regarded as possible winners if they can hang with Ritzenhein until the final 400 meters of the 5,000-meter race.

Siraki, a senior who lowered the girls’ record at Mt. SAC to 16:38 earlier this season, was undefeated entering the West regional. But her second-place finish to senior Alicia Craig of Gillette, Wyo., wasn’t surprising because her main goal was to qualify for the national championships by placing among the top eight finishers.

Craig and Siraki, who finished third and fourth, respectively, in the national championships last year, are expected to battle for the title Saturday with senior Sara Bei of Santa Rosa Montgomery a possible top-three finisher.

Bei failed to qualify for the national championships last year, but she was third in 1998 and 10th in 1997.

Freshman Liza Pasciuto of Murrieta Valley and senior Natalie Stein of North Hollywood will make their first appearances in the national championships.

Pasciuto placed sixth in the West regional after placing second to Siraki in the Division I races of the state and Southern Section championships.

Stein finished eighth in the West regional after placing fifth in the state Division I final and winning her second City Section title.

She is the second girl from the City to advance to the national championships since the meet began in 1979.

The first was Valerie Flores of San Pedro, who placed 19th last year after a fifth-place finish in the West regional championships.