By Leonard COUTIN

Foot Locker held its 38th annual Cross-Country National Championships on Saturday at Morley Field in Balboa Park in San Diego. The 5000m cross-country course offered a premium running terrain: a flat, wide and open berth that allowed the 40 runners easy access to get quickly off the starting line. They headed out onto a slight incline then descended down hill around the first switch back to return around the moderate up hill portion. Then they tackled the switch backs on the other side of the park before making their way towards the up hill grade portions that led the runners around the course to return to the starting area before doing it all again.

Claudia Lane, a 14-year-old sophomore running for Malibu High School, established herself as a star athlete this year. Racing against some of the fastest runners in the country, Lane showed grace and poise early on when she led the charge for the West Region. Lane brought an impressive list of victories to the course: the Foot Locker West Region Championships at Mt. SAC running 17:20.1, the Division 4 girls CIF State Championship at Woodward Park running 16:45, the CIF SS Finals Division 4 at Riverside running 16:30.11, the CIF SS prelims at Riverside running 16:51.60, the Mt. SAC Invitational D1 D2 Sweepstakes race running 16:32.60. The wins ranked her as one of California’s best runners of all time.

On Saturday Lane felt the pressure from the South’s lead runner Nevada Mareno. Lane never underestimated the challenge, but instead strived to run her best. Coming off the last down hill portion she knew she needed to address the strong moves by Mareno. She had to reach deep as Mareno persisted in trying to capture the lead in the last 200 yards.

“Lane put her second gear in motion and separated herself from the challenge,” shouted announcer Tim O’Rourke as Lane bolted for the finish to take the win with a time of 17:04.8. Mareno finished second (17:08.3). The rest of the pack was further back with third place captured by junior Rebecca Story from the South Region with a time of 17:35.4.

Final team scores: South Region 39 points, Northeast 51, Midwest 62, West 69.

Though the team lacked better placement, there is no doubt of Claudia Lane’s ability. Spectators will await her performance on the track to see how she fares.

Looking back a year ago, as a first time freshman runner Lane ran 19:42 to nab fifth place in the Mt. SAC D4 varsity race. Later she improved her time to 18:14.8 with a runner-up finish at Mt. SAC at the CIF D4 Southern Section finals. What changed for her this past summer was her ability to run a 35-minute pace keeping her mile time consistently the same or nearly so. As shared by Mt. SAC legendary announcer O’Rourke, “The one common thread that ties the winners and top participants of the national championship as future college [runners] and Olympians is running at the nationals.”

In the boys’ race the top runners also came from the South Region. Senior Reed Brown finished ahead of Fin Gessner and Seth Hirsch from the Midwest Region at the final stretch. Reed won in a time of 15:01.8, followed by Gessner (15:04.4) and Hirsch (15:04.8). The West first runner was Talon Hull who took fourth (15:07.1).

Final team score: South 38, Midwest 42, West 50, and Northeast 102.

  Leonard Coutin