Agoura’s Dameworth Reinforces His Reputation at National Meet

Paul Stoneham was understandably thirsty after placing 15th in the Kinney national cross-country championships in San Diego on Saturday.

However, as he waited in line for a soft drink, his mother impatiently urged him to hurry back to the bus that would shuttle him and his fellow competitors to the hotel where they were staying.

“Don’t worry about it, mom,” Stoneham of Midway High (Waco, Tex.,) said in his east-Texas drawl. “Dameworth is still here and the bus ain’t going anywhere without him. They might leave the 15th-place finisher behind, but they ain’t going nowhere without Dameworth. He finished fourth. He’s one of the big boys.”

Bryan Dameworth of Agoura High is, indeed, one of the nation’s elite after finishing fourth in the race at Morley Field in Balboa Park.

Dameworth had won his second consecutive state Division I title in Fresno 2 weeks ago and placed second at the same Woodward Park course in the Kinney West regionals a week later. He entered the national championships with a legitimate chance to win a race with no heavy favorite.

Despite falling short of his goal to become the first junior to win the boys’ title, Dameworth was the top-finishing underclassman with a personal best of 15 minutes, 15.4 seconds over the 5,000-meter course.

“This wasn’t my best race of the year,” said Dameworth, who swooped past John Coyle of Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, N. J., in the last 100 meters to place fourth. “But I’m happy with it. There’s a lot of distractions surrounding this race--all the photographers can freak you out if you let them--but I’m happy with the way I handled the situation.”

The fact that it was Dameworth’s second trip to the national championships--he placed 19th as a freshman in 1986--helped him greatly in maintaining his composure.

“I was able to stay pretty relaxed this time,” he said. “Even though I was one of the favorites, I didn’t really feel that much pressure. There was a lot more pressure at the state meet.”

Trailing the leaders by 4 seconds at the mile mark and by 6 seconds at 2 miles, Dameworth planned to make a big move with a mile left, but when the time came to shift into overdrive, he lacked the horsepower. “The crispness just wasn’t there,” he said. “I tried to make a move, but I couldn’t.”

Dameworth actually lost ground in the last mile to winner Brian Grosso (15::03.3) of Western High in Walled Lake, Mich., but Bill Duley, his coach and stepfather, praised his protege’s performance.

“He ran a smart race, tactically,” Duley said. “He said he didn’t feel that sharp, but he still finished fourth against a great field.”

Dameworth’s finish stamped him as the best high school cross-country runner in the Western region this season. “It’s been a satisfying year for me,” Dameworth said. “But I really didn’t give much thought to the nationals at the start of the season. I was more concerned with defending my state title than anything else.”

Dameworth began the season in quest of his second consecutive state title and ended it as one of the nation’s big boys.