Fahy, Loyola Boys Turn Heads at Mt. Carmel Invite


Lalo Diaz was stunned and then extremely cautious.

His Loyola Cubs had just decimated two state top 10 teams at the Mt. Carmel/ASICS Cross Country Invitational over Balboa Park's tough 2.95-mile course and he refused to make anything of it.

"I don't think we saw the real Dana Hills team and La Costa Canyon is very talented up front and will find a No. 5," said the venerable coach after Loyola scored just 41 points to LCC's 58 and Dana Hills' 98. "This is like a football game and we aren't going to be fooled like Atlanta against New England in the Super Bowl.

"A football game is four quarters and we're barely a third into the cross country season. We won't let our guard down. The kids can celebrate from San Diego to Los Angeles on the trip home but then it's back to work. Humbly, we took a step but there is a lot of the season left and anything can happen."

The thing is, the Cubs, led by a fifth place finish from Mason Ratkovich (pictured above), went 5-6-7-9-14 and just for good measure, placed 18th and 19th. All seven runners in the top 20. Nice grouping.

He and fellow coach Dr. Frank Meza said they were pleased both with the bunching-the top five were separated by 31 seconds-but also by the fact there were four runners in the top 10. Do that at state and it's a guaranteed title.

Dropping into Division 2, it was believed traditional power Dana Hills and La Costa Canyon, up from Division 3 this year, would be at least two of the teams to beat. They still are, but now the Cubs have moved to the front.

Individually, for the second straight week it was a La Costa Canyon party as Jacob Stanford won at 15:22.7, ahead of teammate Caleb Niednagel (15:33.7) and Eleanor Roosevelt's Michael Sahagun (15:39.2). Those front-runners Diaz referred to included LCC's Garrett Stanford who placed eighth in his first meet at 15:55.8 after nursing a minor foot injury which hampered his training.

"I thought there were people next to me at the tennis courts (about 2 miles into the race), so I worked going up that small hill," said Jacob, who pulled away to a seven second lead at that point. "Today I raced to place, I didn't even look at my time. It doesn't matter. I thought it was a great day."

Niednagel got a chance to compare notes with his former Dana Hills teammates, then went out and beat them.

"I like 3 miles a lot better than 2," said Niednagel, comparing the Balboa Park to the shorter, less hilly Kit Carson Park course a week ago. "This is the first time I've run on this course (his time was the 33rd fastest ever for a junior). I'm pretty happy with my time. I looked at the junior course records and they're really fast.

"We've been working on speed a little, running 1000s and 800s, but now we're going to hit the hills."

Niednagel said he was impressed with Loyola's depth and pointed out that now the Mavericks know what they have to do to contend for the title in November at Woodward Park.

Sahagun, another junior, battled with Niednagel most of the race, staying with the leaders until the final hill but as might be expected of a 4.6 student, he used the race as an education for the future-maybe even the Foot Locker Nationals in December.

"This race is way better than Woodbridge," said Sahagun. "This course teaches the team what to expect from hilly courses, while Woodbridge, which is flat, doesn't. I didn't go the maximum on the (Upas St.) hill the first time-I didn't want to get gassed.

"When I thought about making a move at the tip top of the hill, it was too late."

Kind of what the Loyola opponents thought when they saw all those white singlets.

In the Division 2 race late in the day, Lakeside El Capitan's Matt Machnov ran step for step with Crawford's Nader Ali until just before the second trip up the hill, then opened a nice gap that Ali closed. But too little, too late.

"I heard my teammates telling me he was coming but that just made me push harder," said Machnov who ran 15:49.1to Ali's 15:59.7. "I kind of wish I had run this morning-the Stanford twins are great people. This is a big confidence-builder."