Fall Notebook /Sam Farmer : Trimble Keeps Pace With NCAA Goal

Occidental senior Michelle Trimble took a few strides toward her goal of winning a national cross-country championship by soundly whipping the field at the Division III Western Regional Championship at Lake Castaic last Saturday.

Trimble, a 3-time All-American who has not lost a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference race, finished the 5,000-meter event in 17:57.4, defeating runner-up Denise McFayden of UC San Diego by 25 seconds. Amy Cathcart, also of Occidental, finished third.

“I’ve been staying with whoever wants to take the lead,” said Trimble, who improved her time over the course by 1 minute, 30 seconds. “I left Denise and Amy with about three-quarters of a mile left. I felt really good and strong.”

Trimble has tapered her training this week to prepare for the national championships in St. Louis on Saturday.

“I’m doing a lot of visualization and keeping really positive thoughts,” she said. “I’ve learned through experience to suppress the excitement until the day of the race, but I’m getting a bit nervous.”

Four other Occidental women finished in the top 10 in the regional: Cathcart (third, 18:30.0), Jeanise Eisenman (sixth, 19:05.1), Laurie Schuster (seventh, 19:08.1) and Amy Halseth (eighth, 19:11.4).

Occidental also claimed the men’s regional title, Coach Bill Harvey’s fifth crown since 1980. Emmet Hogan won the individual title in 25:32.1 over an 8,000-meter course. Lionel Shaw (26:12.2) finished third.

Stale mates: The Glendale College men’s basketball team finished 10-2 in summer league play but Coach Brian Beauchemin says the Vaqueros have since cooled.

“They’re stale from practicing against each other,” said Beauchemin, whose team opens at home Friday night at 7:30 against East Los Angeles. “I threw them out of the gym Monday.”

Beauchemin says several of the returning starters have left the team because of other commitments. The only returning letterman is 6-foot, 8-inch center Jimmie Fowler, who was used sparingly last season.

The inexperienced freshmen are testing Beauchemin’s patience.

“I’m going to leave to sell Fuller brushes,” he joked. “It’s probably easier.”

Playoff bound: St. Francis and Franklin are the only area high schools to advance to postseason play in football.

St. Francis (4-6 overall, 2-2 in Del Rey League play) will play Fountain Valley (8-2, 5-0 in Sunset League play) at Huntington Beach. Franklin (9-0, 7-0 in Northern Conference play) will play North Hollywood (4-5, 4-3 in Valley East Conference play) at Wilson. Both games are Friday night at 7:30.

St. Francis, which won 2 of its last 3 games, has a tough draw in Fountain Valley, the No. 2-seeded team in the Southern Section Division I playoffs.

“We’ve been up and down all year long,” St. Francis Coach Terry Terrazone said. “But from the midpoint on, we played tough. We lost to good teams.”

Franklin Coach Armando Gonzalez says his team will have to put forth a better effort than it did in Friday’s 27-10 win over rival Wilson.

“We were a little bit sloppy--too many flags,” said Gonzalez who has coached a trio of 3-A City championship teams. “If we had played as error-free as we would have liked, we would have put it out of reach early.”

Panther tailback Lamont Lovett (96 yards in 21 carries) had just his second sub-100-yard game of the season. He finished the regular season with 1,797 yards in 219 carries.

“They were keying on him,” said Gonzalez of the Wilson defense. “They run a lot of stunts and we didn’t do a real good job of opening holes.”

Weight Wait: Pepe Reilly, a junior at Hoover High, will have to hold off for a few weeks before he gets a shot at a 119-pound opponent. Reilly, who previously fought in the 112-pound class, was scheduled to fight in the Diamond Belt tournament last weekend but his opponent didn’t make weight.

Pepe’s father, Fred, is skeptical.

“I don’t think the guy wanted to fight him,” he said. “All that work for nothing.”

Pepe, too, was disappointed.

“A lot of people wanted to see me fight,” he said. “He looked about my weight, but really strong. I don’t think he could catch me.”