Ready to run

Laguna Beach boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams prepare for CIF-Southern Section prelims Nov. 12.This is the part of the 2005 cross-country season that Laguna Beach High girls’ and boys’ coaches Earl Towner and Dave Brobeck have been pointing to since the beginning of September.

With the Pacific Coast League finals having taken place Thursday at Irvine Regional Park, the next big meet on tap for both teams is the CIF-Southern Section Division IX prelims, which will be run Nov. 12 at Mount SAC in Walnut.

Prior to Thursday’s league finals meet, the Laguna girls had finished their dual meet season with a 3-3 record. They lost to Tesoro and beat Beckman during a tri-meet on Oct. 27.

Laguna finished fourth overall at last year’s league finals. This year, with Beckman new to the league, which now has seven members, Towner expects his squad to again place fourth.

“I believe that our team is rounding into great shape for CIF prelims and finals,” he said. “We have been careful not to race too hard thus far so that our best race efforts are ahead of us when they matter most.

“We have a couple of girls nursing injuries who I hope will be able to run soon. If not, we will still be fine.”

One Laguna runner to keep an eye on is Alex Crawley.

Last year, Crawley finished second at CIF finals and missed first place by just two seconds. At the CIF state meet, she was the first Laguna girl to finish in the top ten and earned all-state honors.

This year, she was invited to run in the sweepstakes race at Woodbridge -- a first for a Laguna girl, Towner said -- and ran a personal record time of 17:55 and finished 13th. That time was an improvement of 44 seconds from her previous personal record, set last year.

At the Stanford Invitational in September, Crawley finished fourth running against several of the top returning girls from last year’s state meet.

The team’s captain, Crawley has set goals of winning CIF-SS and state this year, Towner said.

“Alex is one of the most driven and motivated girls that I have worked with at the high school in my 16 years of coaching,” Towner said. “She has done things that no other girl runner has by placing second in CIF finals and top ten at state last year.

“She is very goal-minded, her work ethic is extremely high and she is a tremendous role model for the younger girls. She is an overachiever in every sense of the word, and getting very close to breaking the girls’ three-mile record of 17:33. Her PR [personal record] is 17:55 at Woodbridge this year. Her love of running and her successes thus far are inspiring to her teammates.”

On the boys’ side of the course, Laguna completed a 5-1 league run by defeating Tesoro and Beckman, doing so without its top runner, Jeremy Eaton, who still is in rehab for a knee injury.

Coach Dave Brobeck said that Eaton is “training in the pool, jogging lightly and riding a bike.” He may not race again until CIF finals.

Injuries have seemed to plague the defending state Division IV champions this year: Aman Bhatia, the team’s No. 3 runner, recently suffered a foot injury and is likely to miss some time as well.

“Fortunately, the team should have enough firepower to overcome these two key losses and qualify easily over the next weeks into CIF finals,” Brobeck said of the Breakers, ranked second in CIF-SS Division IX and fifth in the division in the state rankings.

“We will need Jeremy and Aman at full strength to make a run at CIF and state titles,” he said.

Laguna is the two-time defending Pacific Coast League champion, but that run could come to an end Thursday without Eaton and Bhatia in the lineup.

Brobeck said that Corona del Mar should run away with the boys’ title.

“They trained hard, avoided injuries and have earned it this year,” he said.

With the CIF prelims looming and CIF finals taking place Nov. 19, the return of Eaton and Bhatia is imperative to Laguna’s success at the Southern Section meet.

“When we get to CIF finals, as Jeremy and Aman go, so go our chances to catch lightning,” Brobeck said. “We are hoping for speedy recoveries. The peak will still be there. It’s a question of whether or not I’ll have my top seven on line for it to happen.”20051104ipcrkhknMARK DUSTIN / COASTLINE PILOT(LA)Laguna Beach’s Alex Crawley heads for the final climb in Thursday’s race against Tesoro and Beckman at Alta Laguna Park.