CROSS COUNTRY NOTEBOOK: SAUGUS IS ENJOYING RUN OF REDEMPTION : FRESNO TRIP IS A ROUSING SUCCESS.

Byline: Kirby Lee Special to the Daily News

The Saugus High boys' cross country team has finally answered the question: What if?

After winning their first Southern Section title since 1985, the Centurions had a sub-par performance in their inaugural appearance in the state championships last November.

But last Saturday in its first visit to Woodward Park in Fresno since the state meet, Saugus powered its way to the large schools division title in the Clovis Invitational.

``After winning a Southern Section title, the state meet was anticlimactic because the whole focus of the season was making it there,'' Saugus coach Pam Thompson said. ``This year, the focus is to run well in the state meet.''

That was evident in the Clovis Invitational. Buoyed by Daniel Klawer's fourth-place finish in 15 minutes, 43 seconds over the 5,000-meter course, Saugus totaled 105 points. Clovis Buchanan and Villa Park were second and third with 153 and 196.

Klawer's time was a whopping 1:09 faster than his state-meet performance when he finished 66th with a 103-degree temperature. Sophomore Nick Zoetewey ran 16:38 in the Clovis meet to knock 17 seconds off his state-meet mark.

``We saw how we would have liked to run in the state meet,'' Klawer said.

In all, senior Jacob Boeding (16:15), Jon Mahar (16:46) and Steven Wade (16:47) ran a cumulative 1:22 faster than they did in placing sixth in the 1997 state Division II championships.

It was the strongest showing of the season for Wade, a senior who took an eight-month break from running after last year's cross country season. Saugus' team performance Saturday would have landed the Centurions in third place in the 1997 state meet and only four points out of second.

``It feels good to be running this well at this point in the season,'' Boeding said.

Still, it figures to be a tough haul for Saugus, which has been elevated to Division I this season. Neither Santa Ana nor defending state Division I champion Long Beach Poly, the top-ranked teams in the state, were at the Clovis meet.

Saugus, ranked third, will face Santa Ana and Long Beach Poly for the first time in the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational on Oct. 24. They will likely meet again in the Southern Section and state championships. Thompson plans to rest her top five at Saturday's Santa Clarita Invitational in preparation for Mt. SAC.

``I wish some of the other schools who were vying for the championships would have been at Clovis,'' Klawer said. ``Mentally, it's positive we won and we might have seen it as a negative if we weren't quite there. At Mt. SAC, we'll see exactly where we are and where the chips will fall.''

Changing course: The Santa Clarita Invitational on Saturday morning has been moved from College of the Canyons to Lake Casitas because of conflicts with use of the stadium, with the COC football team's game against Hancock in the evening. It will be the first time in the meet's 15-year history the competition will not be held at COC.

Bouncing back: Former Canyon High standout Julie Harris is continuing her comeback after an injury-riddled freshman season at the University of Idaho and a senior season of high school cut short by mononucleosis.

Harris, now attending Glendale College, finished second in the second of three Western State Conference meets in Bakersfield on Friday, to help the Vaqueros to the team title and earn at least a share of their second consecutive conference title.

Earlier this season, Harris won the individual title in the Golden West Invitational in Huntington Beach.

Teamwork: As a junior at Canyon, Harris teamed with Lauren Fleshman on the Cowboys' 1995 state Division I cross country champion team. Harris and Fleshman, now a Canyon senior, have been reunited as co-workers at In-N-Out Burger.

Another Canyon cross country runner Erin White and former Cowboys harriers J.R. Ponce and David Arrellano also work at the Canyon Country franchise, which offers a starting salary of $7.25 an hour and frequent raises.

The attractive wages at In-N-Out swayed Fleshman from applying for a guaranteed job at minimum wage at Magic Mountain.

``You don't even need an interview at Magic Mountain, but I'd rather work at In-N-Out getting $8.75 than taking pictures for minimum wage,'' Fleshman said.

A 50-percent employee discount at In-N-Out has also been a plus for the 5-foot-7, 105-pound Fleshman, who has been rumored to gobble down two double doubles and an order of fries in one sitting.

```They cook real food, not food thawed out of a freezer,'' Fleshman said. ``It's a good place to work with good food and a good atmosphere.''

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PHOTO Daniel Klawer's fourth-place finish (15 minutes, 43 seconds) helped the Saugus boys win the large-schools division title in the Clovis Invitational.

Kirby Lee/Special to the Daily News