CROSS COUNTRY NOTEBOOK CANYON GOING FOR SWEEP.

Byline: Kirby Lee Special to the Daily News

Canyon High's girls and boys will be among the favorites for the Southern Section Division II titles on Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. But the teams enter the competition with different outlooks.

The boys, with senior Nick Zoetewey, juniors Luke Llamas and Jameson Mora and sophomore Ryan Morgan, are heavy favorites over St. John Bosco.

``It's going to be just a matter of getting to the finish line,'' coach Dave DeLong said.

For the girls, getting to the starting line might be a problem. In Saturday's preliminaries, the Cowboys were hobbled by injuries to freshmen Lauren Walker (Achilles' tendon) and Alysia Johnson (hip flexor) and illness striking junior Barrie Truex.

Nevertheless, Canyon pulled off a heat victory with top-10 efforts from junior Jazmin Treadway and sophomore Brenda Stevens. A battle among Canyon, Sultana and Woodbridge is projected in the final.

``It's close I feel, but I feel that we can win,'' Johnson said. ``We did really, really well with injuries and sickness. We're going to be going with confidence.''

So will Zoetewey, who hopes to rebound from a subpar preliminary race in which he ran while ill. Canyon easily won its heat, even though the two-time Foothill League champion finished as his team's fourth man, nearly a minute off his career-best time of 15:13.

``It does feel good to know we don't have much competition if everybody is running normal,'' Zoetewey said.

--O'Neal peaking: Quartz Hill freshman Amanda O'Neal, who finished as her team's No. 1 runner for the first time in the Golden League cross country championships, was runner up in 18:45 in her heat in the Division I preliminaries.

O'Neal and freshman Lacey Troth in fifth propelled the Rebels, ranked third in the state, into the final with a second-place heat finish.

--Three of a kind: Highland had one of the top three combinations in its Division I preliminaries with senior Kelsey Wright, sophomore Ashley Cambaliza and junior Cassie Ramirez finishing fourth, 11th and 12th in the Bulldogs' heat.

Wright, who has been running with a possible stress fracture in her shin, will be the lone Bulldog advancing to the final after Highland finished a nonqualifying sixth.

--Desert storm: The Desert Christian boys and girls advanced to the Division V finals. The girls, seeking their fourth consecutive state-meet berth, won their heat with four finishers among the top 11 - Jynnifer Wright (second), Deanne Matteson (seventh), Clay Tarazi (eighth) and Bethany Spoelstra (11th).

The boys, who rested No. 1 runner Dan Miller, were third in their heat to advance to the 12-team final with five runners - Ryan Smith, Seth Avery, Matt Grandpre, Kevin Scott and Tim Smith - within 17 seconds.

--Coaching kudos: DeLong will be honored as the Southern Section co- Coach of the Year by the California Track and Cross Country Coaches Alliance at the section finals. DeLong, who will share the award with George Wright of Long Beach Poly, guided the girls to their eighth Foothill League title in nine years and the boys to their second in a row.

--Eye catching: Treadway and Morgan are not exactly creating a fashion trend with their glasses, but they are capturing attention.

The nearsighted Treadway recently began racing with dark prescription sunglasses. Morgan, who has no vision problems, surprised his teammates when he wore glasses with large round frames in the preliminaries.

``He sort of looks like a 1930s stockbroker,'' Zoetewey said.

AT A GLANCE

What: Southern Section cross country finals

Where: Mt. San Antonio College

When: Saturday, 8 a.m.

Why: Championships in five girls' and boys' divisions will be decided as well as state-meet berths.

CAPTION(S):

box

Box: At A Glance (see text)