CROSS COUNTRY: RESPECT EARNED BY O.C. BOYS FINISH FOURTH AT MT. SAC EVENT.

Byline: KEVIN CONNELLY  Special to the Daily News

WALNUT -- It was minutes before the Oaks Christian of Westlake Village boys' cross country team was scheduled to race when the public address announcer threw a curveball.

Ranked No. 10 in state Div. IV, the Lions listened from the starting line Friday as the seven opponents before them were introduced at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational boys' Div. IV sweepstakes race.

The defending state cross country champion this. The five-time Southern Section cross country champion that.

Then came Oaks Christian's turn, and with it, all that information about the school's nationally ranked football team.

``It's kind of funny, I guess,'' said Lions sophomore Charlie Petrie, who clocked 16 minutes, 34 seconds on the hilly three-mile course to finish in a tie for seventh place overall in the Div. IV race.

``Things like that light the fire under us. We know how good the football team is, but after more races like this our accomplishments will eventually speak for themselves.''

Oaks Christian also got an impressive performance from Ethan Long (seventh place, 16:34) to finish with a fourth-place team clocking of 86:58.

The Lions (101 points) finished more than a minute out of first place, but performed well considering the team includes no seniors.

``This is a young team and we are still growing,'' Long said. ``The steep hills on this course were a lot different than what we're used to. It was actually more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge, so I'm sure we'll benefit from this race later on.''

It was not a particularly spectacular day for local varsity teams during the first of two days at the event, which is scheduled to feature more than 19,000 prep athletes from 525 schools.

The Marlborough of Los Angeles girls clocked 101:59 (67 points) to finish second place in the Div. IV sweepstakes, while La Reina of Thousand Oaks (113) finished fourth with a time of 106:24.

``It was my first time running here, and I was impressed with the difficulty of the course,'' said La Reina freshman Sarah Pearson, who finished 12th with a 20:02 clocking. ``I'm not totally happy with my time, and believe there's a lot of room for improvement.''

In the Div. V boys' sweepstakes, Flintridge Prep of La Canada Flintridge finished in second place with a clocking of 85:31 (71), while Oakwood of North Hollywood junior Aric Van Halen finished third individually with time of 15:44.

No local team finished higher than second in sweepstakes races, and no local runner placed better than third individually.

Today's event begins at 7:15 a.m., with the Royal of Simi Valley boys and the Saugus girls both favored to win the Div. I sweepstakes races. The Highlanders are the top-ranked team in the state, while Saugus is ranked No. 2.

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