Half-Marathon Winners Set Sights Higher

Sylvia Mosqueda and Matt Ebiner entered Saturday’s Southern California half-marathon in Irvine with similar backgrounds and expectations. Their results turned out to be nearly identical as well.

Mosqueda came back from a year off to win the women’s division by just over three minutes and set a course record on the flat, twisting layout. The 32-year-old Los Angeles resident finished in 1 hour 13 minutes 9 seconds, bettering Jane Welzel’s record by nearly four minutes.

Ebiner, a 37-year-old from Encino, was the overall winner (1:06:47). He crossed the finish line long before second-place finisher Demitri Bogush of San Diego (1:09:16) rounded the final turn.

“I thought it was going to be a little bit closer and it ended up being almost like a time trial by myself,” Ebiner said. “I pulled away about the third mile and I really didn’t expect to be running by myself in this race.”

Ebiner qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials in 1988 and 1992, but hasn’t trained seriously since 1992. He chose Saturday’s race to help prepare for the Las Vegas Marathon in four weeks, where he’ll attempt to qualify for the 2000 Olympic trials.

“I haven’t been focused on my running,” Ebiner said. “So I’m getting back into the best shape I’ve been since 1992 and I’d like to try to go to a third Olympic trials.”

Mosqueda, a former state champion at East Los Angeles College and NCAA Division I champion at Cal State Los Angeles, is also shooting for the 2000 Olympic trials. She missed making the 10,000-meter Olympic team by four seconds in 1992, then performed badly at the trials in 1996.

“I’m going to go for 2000 and see what happens.” Mosqueda said. “It might be 10,000 meters or it might be a marathon, I don’t know. This half-marathon felt very comfortable.”

In the 5K race, Derek Kite, 27, of Malibu won in 14:16, setting a course record by eight seconds. Jeanne Lasse Johnson, 41, of San Diego was the women’s winner in 17:11.