Jakosky Adjusts Sights on the Run

Laura Jakosky of Agoura High needs to upgrade her goals for the state cross-country championships Nov. 28 at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Jakosky, a sophomore, started the season wanting to finish among the top 20 in the state Division II race, but a top-10 finish appears possible after her second-place effort behind Jaclyn Pedersen of Royal in the Ventura County championships at Lake Casitas on Friday.

Pedersen, a sophomore who runs at the Division I level in postseason competition, clocked 18:17 over the three-mile course after leading most of the race. Jakosky timed 18:21 after being in seventh place at one mile.

“That was a tactic that we decided to use just for that race,” Coach Bill Duley of Agoura said of Jakosky’s conservative start. “We figured that there would be a lot of excited runners with it being the county championships and that some people would go out real fast. So we just told Laura to sit back a little bit at the start and relax.”

The strategy worked. Jakosky moved to third at two miles, but was unable to catch Pedersen in the final half-mile.

Jakosky moved to sixth on the all-time course performer list and ahead of Kay Nekota, runner-up in the 1991 state Division I and 1993 state Division II finals for Agoura.

“Seeing what she did on that course in comparison to Kay definitely helps her confidence,” Duley said of Jakosky, who was 28th in state last year.

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Unlike earlier in the decade, the girls’ race of the Ventura County championships didn’t have an outstanding individual such as Amy Skieresz of Agoura or Kim Mortensen of Thousand Oaks.

But Pedersen and others added their names to the all-time course list with Jakosky.

Pedersen moved into a tie for fourth with Gabriela Rodriguez of Oxnard, who ran 18:17 in 1993. Sophomore Kelley Hess of Thousand Oaks finished third and moved to 11th with her 18:39 effort. Jeanene Gerry of Camarillo, a senior, was fourth and moved to 12th at 18:41.

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Skieresz, a senior at Arizona, won the Pacific 10 Conference women’s championships at Alton Baker Park in Eugene, Ore., on Saturday to become the first runner, male or female, to win four consecutive conference titles.

Skieresz, 1996 NCAA champion, has won 18 of her last 19 cross-country races and 22 of 26 during her college career.

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The Top 10

Rankings of cross-country teams from the region

BOYS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 Saugus (Foothill) 2 2 Nordhoff (Frontier) 3 3 Canyon (Foothill) 4 4 Notre Dame (Mission) 5 5 Ventura (Channel) 6 7 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 7 8 Camarillo (Pacific View) 8 6 Buena (Channel) 9 9 Agoura (Marmonte) 10 10 Hart (Foothill)

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GIRLS

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RK LW School (League) 1 1 La Canada (Rio Hondo) 2 2 Thousand Oaks (Marmonte) 3 3 Canyon (Foothill) 4 5 Nordhoff (Frontier) 5 6 Royal (Marmonte) 6 4 Simi Valley (Marmonte) 7 7 Birmingham (West Valley) 8 8 Louisville (Mission) 9 9 Newbury Park (Marmonte) 10 10 Crescenta Valley (Pacific)

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