Woodbridge Cross-Country Invitational : Dameworth Glides In With Record : Agoura Senior Wins Medium-Schools Race, Breaks Course Mark

With a smooth stride, seemingly endless endurance and a tremendous kick, Bryan Dameworth has left plenty of runners in his wake over the years.

The Agoura High School senior and two-time defending state cross-country champion is the nation’s top-ranked returning prep runner. Dameworth’s reputation is such that younger runners have been known to follow him--at a distance--while he warms down, as if in his footsteps they, too, could find the path to greatness.

Saturday at the Woodbridge Invitational, Dameworth reconfirmed that reputation by winning the boys’ medium-schools race in 14 minutes 21 seconds, smashing the course record of 14:40 set last year by Santa Ana Valley’s Jimmy Rodriguez.

“I wanted to get the record; I felt real strong,” Dameworth said. “Mostly I wanted to get it so I could start the season with some confidence.”

Considering Dameworth’s past performances, it wouldn’t seem as if he’d be lacking in that commodity. On Saturday, for example, Dameworth, 6-foot-3, pushed the pace after powering away from the pack in the first mile. At the 1 1/2-mile mark, he had a 13-second lead. At two miles, it was 22 seconds. One mile later, he finished 37 seconds in front of the runner-up, Glendora’s Bill Branigan.

Jose Sandoval of Valencia was third (15:27), Mike Farrell of San Clemente was fourth (15:28) and Chris Cannon of Corona del Mar was fifth (15:35).

Dameworth, who last year finished fourth overall-first among underclassmen-at the Kinney National High School Cross-Country Championships, said he is especially motivated this season. He averaged 80 miles a week during summer training.

“After being fourth at nationals last year, I’m the top returning runner in the country,” he said. “I’d like to hold that postion.”

Holding position also was on the mind of Dameworth’s teammate, Deena Drossin. Drossin, running in the girls’ medium schools race, had a 10-second lead at both the one- and two-mile marks. But during the last quarter-mile, Drossin heard footsteps. Her teammate, Tiffany York, running shoulder-to-shoulder with San Clemente’s Terri Smythers was approaching quickly.

Although Drossin held on to win with the fastest girls’ time of the day (17:55), Smythers never gave up, outkicking York in the final 200 yards to finish one second behind Drossin.

“I didn’t think I’d finish higher than 15th,” Smythers said. “I was pretty nervous. I was thinking I wasn’t in very good shape. In the last mile I was just trying to keep my legs loose. But then my hair fell out (of her hair clip). I heard this snap and said ‘Uh oh!”

Marina’s Brian McCaffery, meanwhile, sporting a Brian Bosworth hair style, had no such troubles. Compared to last year, when McCaffery suffered one illness after another, including mononucleosis that ended his season, Saturday’s race was trouble-free. McCaffery ran the fastest Orange County time of the day, finishing fourth in the large schools’ race in 15:26.

“My goal was 15:25, so I’m pretty happy,” he said.

Happy doesn’t begin to describe Ocean View Coach Beth Chilcott’s reaction on Saturday as she watched her star freshman, Christie Engesser, win her first high school race. Although Ocean View has been without a front-runner for the past few years, Engesser, a former age-group competitor, proved that she has the potential to become one of the county’s best.

She won the freshman girls’ race in 18:29-a time that also would have won the large schools’ varsity race-beating her nearest competitor by more than 2 1/2 minutes.

Meet Notes:

More than 3,000 runners from more than 100 schools participated in the event, co-sponsored by the Newport/Irvine Rotary. . . . In team competition, a South Coast League showdown resulted in the girls’ large schools race. Capistrano Valley was first (119), Irvine second (121) and El Toro (128) third. . . . Woodbridge also had a very good showing in the girls’ medium schools race. The Warriors, led by Cathi Peck, scored 96 points for second. Agoura was first with 82. . . . In the senior boys’ races, San Clemente (77) outdid Corona del Mar (119) and Laguna Beach (134) in the medium schools division. In the large schools competition, Loyola and Esperanza both scored 120 (Loyola won on its faster sixth runner) and Mater Dei was third (139).